With an upgraded engine, returning characters from the 3D era of the series, and a brand new Kameo system, Mortal Kombat 1 had a lot of anticipation leading up to its launch.
Following its 19 September release, Mortal Kombat 1 has been out for over a month. However, NetherRealm has not confirmed any sales milestones for the game yet.
Over on Steam, the fighting game appears to be falling behind its predecessor, with Mortal Kombat 11 showing twice as many active players on the platform.
Why it matters: The Mortal Kombat franchise has been one of the best sellers of the fighting game genre, rivaling the likes of Tekken and Street Fighter.
According to recent figures, nearly 7K players are active in Mortal Kombat 11. Over the last 24 hours, the game peaked at nearly 11K concurrent players.
However, looking at Mortal Kombat 1, the game has rapidly lost its player base since its release. At the time of writing, only 3,118 players are active in-game, while it reached an all-time high concurrent count of nearly 7K players in 24 hours.
It should be noted that Mortal Kombat 1 has a higher record of concurrent players. Therefore, these figures indicate a lack of player retention for the latest Mortal Kombat title.
The biggest reason for this disparity was likely caused by recent discounts for Mortal Kombat 11. Being an older game, it frequently goes on sale for $5, while the ultimate bundle(includes all DLC) can be purchased for $10.
On the other hand, Mortal Kombat 1 costs $70. Many players have also reported optimization issues on Steam, which may have discouraged others from picking the PC platform.
Interestingly, Capcom reported that Street Fighter 6 had sold 1 million units in 3 days. No such figure has come from NetherRealm, possibly indicating that its latest release has not done too well.
Traditionally, Mortal Kombat has been the most popular Western fighting game IP. Mortal Kombat 11 made over $500 million in profits, and Mortal Kombat 1 was expected to perform even better due to the recent boom in fighting games and PC gaming.
However, at least on Steam, the game is already doing worse than the last release.
Although these figures may seem concerning for Mortal Kombat 1, the game will be supported for a long time, so NetherRealm has plenty of time to win players over.
The studio has recently showcased a new look at Omni-Man, and guest characters like Homelander have also been confirmed. Therefore, with future discounts, DLC characters, and crossovers, the game is expected to eventually establish a healthy player base on PC like Mortal Kombat 11.
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