A sharp drop in popularity that speaks to the state of the Halo franchise
Halo Infinite, Microsoft’s highly anticipated first-person shooter, launched on November 15, 2021 on PC. However, despite good reviews and initial success, the game has suffered a drastic drop in players on the Steam platform.
According to SteamDB data, Halo Infinite peaked at 272,000 concurrent players on launch day, but has since been losing users to around 2,765 players today. This represents a loss of approximately 98% of its player base.
What has happened to Halo Infinite?
The reasons for this steep drop could be several, but some of the most pointed out by the community are the following:
- Halo Infinite has a campaign mode and a multiplayer mode, but only the former is paid and the latter is free. This means that many players only bought the game to enjoy the story and then abandoned it.
- The multiplayer mode has problems with balance, progression and variety. Many players have complained that the battle pass system is too slow and boring, that the weapons and vehicles are not well tuned, and that classic game modes such as Infection or Capture the Flag are missing.
- The game has strong competition in the online shooter genre, such as Call of Duty: Warzone 2, Apex Legends or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. These games have a greater supply of content and updates than Halo Infinite, which may make players opt for them.
- The game has suffered from several bugs and technical errors that have affected the gaming experience. Some examples are performance crashes, connection issues, game crashes or cheating by some players.
These are some of the possible factors that have caused Halo Infinite to lose almost all of its audience on Steam in such a short time. However, this does not mean that the game is dead or that it cannot recover.
Microsoft and 343 Industries have promised to continue working on improving the game and adding new content, such as online co-op or the map editor. In addition, the game is still available on other platforms such as Xbox or the Microsoft Store, where it can have a wider audience.
Halo Infinite is a game with a lot of potential and a large fan base, but it needs to solve its problems and offer more incentives to keep players hooked. Only then will it be able to compete with other titles in the same genre and regain its past glory.
