In lieu of Payday 3’s constant problems and content drought, the FPS game has dropped to below 100 players at one point during the last week. Read on to learn about what caused this and how the developers are trying to revive the game.
Payday 3 Dipped Below 100 Players at One Point
Happened a Week After Developers Announce their "Veteran Strike Team"
- [1] Screenshots taken from Payday 3 SteamCharts.
Payday 3, the latest entry to the FPS heist simulator series that had a disastrous launch last September, has reached a record low of 98 concurrent players on Steam last January 24, 2024. Although it was only recorded for an hour, its highest peak later still only accumulated a meager 562 concurrent players. This comes merely a week after the developers, Starbreeze, announced the formation of their "strike team" that consists of "veteran developers from the design, community, communication, and production teams," last January 18, 2024.
- [2] Screenshot taken from Payday 2 SteamCharts
Meanwhile, looking at Payday 2’s numbers around that same timeframe, it managed to garner 14,912 users! Even at the time of writing, Payday 2 was able to amass over 32 thousand players without any recent updates.
It’s no surprise that the player base has managed to sink quite low, as the game has yet to receive any substantial updates after the lukewarm release of The Syntax Error update last December. It currently sits at Mixed reviews in Steam, due to the new heist being locked behind the paid DLC that costs $9.99.
Starbreeze has laid their clear intentions to continue to try and keep Payday 3 alive, but with this continuous downward trend of depleting players, will whatever the "strike team" do even be able to recuperate its lost player base?
What ARE the Payday 3 Strike Team Doing Now?
- [3] and [4] Screenshots taken from Almir and Elizabeth's live streams
From recent community streams hosted by Starbreeze community managers Almir and Elizabeth, they talked to chatters live on stream and answered anyone’s inquiries with any information they could share. One of the most requested features for Payday 3 has been an offline mode for single-player that was present in Payday 2. Almir was asked if the "strike team" will consider adding offline, and to which he responded, “That’s one of the many topics the strike team are currently discussing and are working on for February. So, come February, we’re gonna talk about everything Payday 3 that we hope you feel is relevant.”
Another heavily requested feature was Stealth and Loud filters in lobbies, indicating how the current players within a lobby are going to approach a heist. Elizabeth responds, “I do know those are in the list of considerations for the strike team. What they will end up doing with them I do not know, but keep an eye out in February for the plan, and you may see those mentioned.”
Lastly, Elizabeth reassures that further news WILL arrive in February, as they are steadfast in approaching the month. She then reconfirms that the strike team is underway with making a new roadmap alongside its previously announced content roadmap.
Sources:
[1] Payday 3 SteamCharts info
[2] Payday 2 SteamCharts info
[3] Almir's Livestream
[4] Elizabeth's Livestream
Payday 3 Content Roadmap
