- Hellblade 2 finally launched worldwide yesterday and is currently one of Steam’s best-selling games.
- After a full day, the game has not been able to reach 4K concurrent players.
- This puts it behind its own predecessor on the platform.
After years of waiting, Hellblade 2 has launched with glorious Unreal Engine 5 visuals and an incredible narrative to boot. However, initial reviews have been a bit mixed across the industry, with the game reaching 81/100 on Metacritic.
Following its launch on Steam, Hellbalde 2 doesn’t appear to be doing too great on the platform, either. It has reached just under 4K peak concurrent players.
Why it matters: This is quite a disappointing start since titles like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League still reached over 7K players despite heavy criticism.
At release, Hellblade 2 boasted less than 2,000 players. While the concurrent player count rose up gradually, it peaked at just 3,982, putting it well behind most of Xbox’s recent first-party releases.
For reference, a game like Redfall had over 6K players on launch day. Even the original Hellblade has a much higher peak player count, and Sony’s PC port of Ghost of Tsushima reached over 50K players at launch.
Fortunately, the title has made it to Steam’s best-sellers list. While the initial pre-orders and Xbox’s marketing were concerning, the narrative-driven release is showing signs of life through its place on the list.
We expect Hellblade 2 to perform better over time, but the day-one figures have been quite disappointing. Ninja Theory already launched the game at a lower-than-standard price, but the studio seems to be struggling to attract players.
There is also a case to be made for Xbox Game Pass. Many have likely tried the title on this subscription, though previous Xbox games have shown impressive player counts on Steam despite their status as day-one subscription titles.
Hellblade 2 seems to be struggling to find its niche on Steam, but the game seems to have hit all the marks for those who enjoy narrative-driven and atmospheric adventures. There seems to be no middle ground on opinions for this title, so we suppose this is reflected in the day-one player counts, as well.
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