Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 have lost over half their PC players in just one month
SteamCharts shows that since the launch of Warzone 2 the overall player base for Modern Warfare 2 and the battle royale title have been slashed by over half on PC.
The first few months for a new, live-service game are always the most interesting as you get to see if a game is capable of sustaining itself for long enough to keep players and fans interested and invested. Modern Warfare 2 was released on October 28, 2022, with Warzone 2 following soon after on November 16, 2022.
Both games are on the frontline for Activision as the company’s main shooter titles and they were both fairly well-received upon their respective launches.
However, certain issues have been reoccurring problems for both titles, namely crashing and connection issues with the server. As a result, it would seem that these technical mishaps have had a significant impact on the overall game’s player retention ability.
According to SteamCharts, a statistical analysis of a game’s past and present player stats for a game, Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 have seen a massive drop-off since Warzone 2’s launch back in November.
Now, we should point out that this is only applicable data for players on PC connected to Steam, but it’s fairly easy to extrapolate the data and apply it to other formats as well.
A combination of 416,212 players jumped onto Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2, the sequel to the BR title, and four days later both titles reached a combined peak of 488,897 concurrent players on November 20, 2022.
We’re now barely 18 days removed from Warzone 2’s debut and December 7, 2022, reported that 217,328 people logged into both titles on Steam. That’s a loss of 271,569 users, and counting, representing approximately a 56% reduction in players.
Obviously, there will be new players hopping on, particularly Warzone 2 as it’s free-to-play, but it suggests that longer-term players might already be losing interest in the game.
With Steam being a PC service, it’s possible that the ongoing PC difficulties of MW2 and WZ2 are proving problematic.
Call of Duty legend Nadeshot recently lashed out at Warzone 2 and the devs telling them to fix the game, and they have not only addressed the PC crashing issues, but also offered solutions too.
But there’s every chance that new content updates will be able to bring back players to Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 who had previously jumped ship.
For more Call of Duty news, check out the genius way of scoring easy kills in DMZ, as well as the bizarre Gulag glitch that makes you execute your own teams.
Image Credit: Activision
