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Highguard has arrived after its blockbuster debut as the final feature<\/a> of The Game Awards, casting a spotlight on it that it was never meant to have. Developer Wildlight said that the original plan was a shadow drop, like Apex Legends before it, but the Game Awards press turned its release into much more of an event.<\/p>\n Now, the first figures are in. As a free-to-play game, anyone could hop in and try Highguard, and a number of high-profile streamers made it a top-viewed game on Twitch for a time. Highguard opened with 97,000 concurrent players, a number I do not think it would have reached were it not for all the Game Awards fuss, which was a strong start.<\/p>\n On its second day, however, there was a sharp drop-off in peak concurrent players<\/a> on Steam, as Highguard didn\u2019t break 20,000 on day 2. It went from 97,000 to 19,000, an 80% drop in just 24 hours. That\u2019s\u2026significant.<\/p>\n There were many reasons for this, from technical, as it really does not run great on PC, something Wildlight is working on, to people just plain not vibing with the game. There\u2019s a lot of \u201cyeah, it\u2019s fine,\u201d but after a few hours or a day or so of playing, that was enough to move on and not return for more the next day.<\/p>\n Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes<\/p>\n The drop is sharp, but we still don\u2019t actually know what Wildlight\u2019s expectations are here. The team has said they do not need a sky-high player count and want to develop a game for its core audience who stick around. Though how many players that will be remains to be seen. These are peak concurrents, and not considering console players. It stands to reason the percent drop will be similar on console, but I don\u2019t think you can consider Highguard a \u201cfailure\u201d in 48 hours. There\u2019s just a lot we don\u2019t know, and no, in no way is this going to be some sort of Concord, shut-down-in-two-weeks situation.<\/p>\n There is a debate right now over whether players were predisposed to be overly \u201chostile\u201d toward the game, with many \u201crooting\u201d for it to fail. I\u2019m not sure I buy that. The game\u2019s trailer was generally poorly received. Now, the game has launched, and it has a 37% positive score on Steam, classifying it as \u201cmostly negative.\u201d I think you can take issue with players who played for ten minutes and gave it a bad review because they couldn\u2019t get connected to the server, but yes, I think spending a day or so with the game is enough to make a judgment. I have also seen no significant \u201cwoke\/DEI\u201d culture war situation where it would be review bombed just for that reason.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a way to spin that this isn\u2019t great. You don\u2019t want to lose that many players that quickly, free-to-play or not, and you don\u2019t want to launch with a Mostly Negative status on Steam, something I don\u2019t think you can dismiss by saying fans simply \u201cwanted\u201d to hate the game. Many people didn\u2019t think it looked good. Many people played and thought it was not good. This is not some wild conclusion.<\/p>\n Again, if Highguard can find its niche and further develop the game over time, that\u2019s really all it needs. Whatever Wildlight\u2019s standard of success is, hopefully it hits it, though I am curious to see how this is doing a month from now.<\/p>\n Follow me on Twitter<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series<\/a> and The Earthborn Trilogy<\/a>.<\/p>\n