MultiVersus was something of a phenomenon when it burst onto the scene in August of last year, quickly racking up more than 10 million players before it was even out of open beta. Obviously, games that have a buzz about them can generally attract an audience at launch (especially if they're free to play), but keeping those people playing is the hard part.
According to both SteamDB and Tracker.gg, at the time of this writing, around 700 people are playing MultiVersus concurrently, which is down more than 99% from a Steam peak of 153,433. Tracker.gg, which pulls data from the game's API across all platforms, shows that 15,180,347 unique players have booted up the game at some point or another.
The most bizarre aspect (at least, in our opinion) is that MultiVersus is an awesome video game, with competitive legs and plenty of post-launch support, to boot. And while, sure, we admittedly might not have played much since the week after launch per se, we would have gladly bet that at least a couple of thousand folks around the world still would. Perhaps we weren't the only ones.
Are you surprised by MultiVersus' current player numbers? When was the last time you booted up the game? Pour one out for those we lost in the comments section below.
[source steamdb.info, via tracker.gg, videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 79
Decent game killed by bad monetisation.
Who is the audience? Most gamers are playing Hogwarts, many hardcore gamers are waiting on PSVR2, so is it the Fortnite or Smash Bro’s crowd? ‘Cos I have news for you, they’re playing Fortnite and Smash Bro’s
And the live service model takes another victim. I understand that it only takes one hit for companies to start making infinite money but as the market gets bigger there is less space for anyone new in it. Companies must be haemorrhaging money on these failed attempts.
It's a real shame as well because this is a decent game. It was just monetized horribly. I give it 2 months before they start talking about turning off the servers.
Even live service games with initial explosive popularity are ultimately struggling. The oversaturation is real.
That's too bad. It's been a while since I played too but I still got it installed. Just too many other things to play. I was hooked for like the first four months or so. Maybe I'll hop on soon again just to support. It really is a great game though. I even slightly prefer it to Smash Bros if I'm being honest.
It's just hard for me to stay on one game for a long time after launch. Street Fighter V is pretty much the only game I can think of that kept me coming back for years after launch. I expect Street Fighter 6 will do the same.
@thefourfoldroot1 I'm pretty confident that the imminent release of a costly niche peripheral isn't affecting the player count of a live service character brawler, mate.
In the old days, this wouldn't be crazy for a good competitive game. Get a couple of months out of it and move on. Publishers need to publish games around those expectations, because there can only be one or two games that people keep playing forever.
@LN78
I was listing player bases and asking who the target audience are and what they are potentially doing. I think it’s pretty clear my inference was it’s the Fortnite crowd, and they are playing Fortnite.
Around release it seemed very good to me. Best competition Smash had, gameplay-wise anyway. Unfortunately, it had that live service/upsell menu as soon as you boot it, and I just could not ignore that. Simply off-putting
Fighting game fan here
The big issues is how Multiverse tried to appeal to a casual audience without having anything that really appealed to casuals. Content is extremely limited, with progression also being stagnant past the first couple of levels. There haven’t really been that many hype inducing characters added recently. There’s barely any offline modes. At least Nickelodeon knew that they would have an audience of competitive players.
@thefourfoldroot1 Yeah I know. I just think it's amusing how you bring up PSVR2 at every given opportunity, no matter how irrelevant.
I completed the pre-season 1 battle pass and the season 1 battle pass but quit the game after that. Didn’t play a single match in season 2. It felt so good to drop it and I haven’t looked back. I don’t miss logging in everyday to do the same, tedious quests one bit.
Plus, the season 2 battle pass wasn’t anywhere near as good as season 1 and the grind was ridiculous. The game was fun to play for a few rounds here and there but the amount of time they expected you to play (to level up) was so far beyond realistic for most people. It felt more like a chore to complete the battle pass rather than something fun. It just wasn’t worth it.
The Halloween event is a perfect example of how awful the grind was and how little they valued your time. You had to WIN something like 780 games in 30 days to unlock all the rewards. That’s 26 games every day (for a game that stopped being fun after 3 games).
Add to that the sheer greed of them. The prices of the new character styles was disgusting honestly. More expensive than Fortnite. Less value and entertainment than Fortnite. Basically they killed their own game with greed and too much grind.
If this had been a proper couch gaming release, and not free-to-play, I'd have probably bought it.
Shame because its a good game which has been killed by over aggressive microtransactions.
I'm hoping developers and publisher are finally seeing that these live service games are not always the way to go. Everybody is looking for that 1 hit wonder to make that easy $$$ but the market is oversaturated with them and usually older guys like me don't care at all for them.
I love Smash. I was excited for this. I played maybe 2 hours when it came out and realized the grind you'd have to do to unlock stuff and I said no thanks. I'd rather pay $60/70 and unlock the old school way. I just played Smash yesterday and it wasn't even online. I did a mini tourney by myself with the comps and then messed around with all the game modes, seeing my spirit collection and whatnot. You could never do that in MultiVersus.
Another dead service game. When will they learn
@LN78
Fair point, except in my head it’s a paradigm shift that impacts my perception of all gaming. We have moved away from the era of watching a game on a screen, and into the era of being inside games convincingly.
It would be like asking me to comment on Super Mario World the week that Mario 64 released…except much more so.
Have we reached peak live service? Rumbleverse and knockout city were not bad games but didn't make it. This looks destined to be shut down. Everyone wants to make a Destiny or Fortnite but perhaps there is only so much market space for those. Interesting to see how it affects Sony strategy, which is to release a good few of these over the next few years.
The free to play live service aspects put me off from even trying it out. I don't know how bad it was in MultiVersus, but stuff like battle passes and strongly pushing the microtransactions just discourages me from picking up a game.
This slump in players is completely their own doing with the sheer amount of greed in this game. I personally hope all the live service games end up much the same. I understand they'll keep on trying, but they're just not for me due to the way they're monetised.
@thefourfoldroot1 I've tried VR and it ain't all that. Glad you're excited though.
@LN78
Lol. Don’t know what to say about that. You obviously haven’t tried good VR.
@thefourfoldroot1 Yes I have. And it wasn't all that. Sorry that bothers you.
@jrt87 As my idiot brother pointed out, having tiny glaring monitors that close to your eyes for lengthy periods can't be less stupid than having high volume earbuds in for hours at a time. And he's an idiot.
@thefourfoldroot1 Or it could just be that people have different opinions.
We get it you love VR, think it's the bees knees and want to eulogise about it, and to a degree I respect that, passion is infectious.
But you also need to respect that not everyone feels that way. Many have tried VR, owned several headsets, but STILL feel it's novelty wears off. It doesn't help that the library is quite limited, and game budgets usually small, due to it's niche nature. That holds it back.
Me? I'm still on the fence. I've had one or two amazing experiences, but that's it. Willing to try PSVR2, but need to wait and see if it's going to be supported heavily beyond launch, with games I am interested in, before committing £600+.
@jrt87
Sure, lol, who needs 3 dimensional vision and life size scale. Such a gimmick. While we are at it, how did colour and sound ever catch on. Silent films are where it’s at.
@themightyant
So you think it’s good enough to buy and play, but is too expensive so you will sell it on. That’s what I got from your comment. Fair enough, everyone has different levels of disposable income.
Honestly, the game is good. I thoroughly enjoyed it, I've played over 500 matches.
However, I don't have enough time to play a F2P game 6 hours a day, forever anymore.
And those who do have to pick one. There are so many on the market. It's a shame!
It's difficult/impossible to make one of these brawler games that's going to keep players playing long term I think. They don't usually have enough depth.
Smash bros is the glaring exception of course, but even then I wonder how much time the average player spends on it, probably not much if you aren't part of the 'pro' competitive scene.
I think fighting games like this are played in bursts and not generally non stop like other live service games such as destiny and apex as there's more to do in those games, so that would explain the initial high numbers, it happened with me with smash bros as when I first got it I played it non stop but now i boot it maybe twice a month.
@thefourfoldroot1 Not quite. There isn't enough that interests me yet. I don't yet know whether it's worth my money to buy and play. I can afford it, cash isn't the problem, just as I could afford a £1,500+ RTX 3090 if I though it was good value, but it's not.
Jury is still out on PSVR2 for me. Will wait 6-12 months to see what reactions are AFTER the initial excitement/hysteria has died down and to see if it's still being supported by Sony and third parties going forward.
I remember the Vita and many other consoles i've bought day 1 only to be disappointed later when support dries up. Once bitten, twice shy and all that.
@themightyant
I honestly can’t ever remember buying a console, VITA included, and thinking there wasn’t enough to play to make it worthwhile. Of course I avoided the whole 3DO debacle, the Jaguar etc. I’ll say again though, there are enough games even at launch to make PSVR2 worth the money.
I easily found the fun in Fallout Guys but this Multiversus was boring. Just button mashing mashing mashing.
thefourfoldroot1 wrote:
But that's my whole point. There are enough game for YOU at launch to make PSVR2 worth the money, and that's great, i'm GENUINELY happy for you and others that feel that way. (And maybe a little jealous, I see your kid like excitement, that's infectious) All i'm saying is that many of us don't feel the same.
This and the Nickelodeon Brawl were exercises in button mashing boredom.
The only plus point for Multiversus was it didn't send the Pro's fans into possible meltdown unlike the Nick Brawler which kicked the fans far faster and louder than anything I've ever heard!
Unoptimised garbage....
the game was accessible at launch... they then made it far more of a grind.
@themightyant 100% spot on with VR, all valid and real issues. if there wasnt these concerns, then it would be selling out and big devs would be making games.
even devs still have concerns.
Understandable though, I played a bit at launch and it was pretty fun. But I quickly decided I didn't want to get sucked into the daily grinding aspect that live service games need to hook people on to thrive.
Never been a fan of continuous multiplayer games as there are plenty of single player games to keep me busy during my free time. Though this game was fun, I found myself occasionally playing it with a couple of friends for like 3 months. Then I just lost interest in it and dropped it completely.
They made a solid Smash-like with some unique twists to the gameplay alongside a fun roster of fan favorite characters... and then decided they wanted to construct the long form gameplay loop to require you play multiple hours a day to complete repetitive objectives.
Is anyone seriously that surprised WB went and WB'd the hell out of it?
Their successes are anomalies, not their standard. I'm not sure any publisher fails upward the way they do.
I think this game will be better if it's full priced games but with continuous support like smash that focus on gameplay rather than daily grind progression that needed players to be logged in to the game everydays.
This is a shame. Great game. With so much fanfare at launch. Games as a service model still a risky bet for Devs. Either it works and your hugely successful, or it doesn't and your, well, not. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground. Wonder or it's possible to restructure the game as would be a massive shame if it ended up shutting down
Another live service game headed to the graveyard.
Game was fun, I played a handful of matches, thought it had potential. Then I realized how much of a GRIND it was to unlock the battle pass, and I just do not have the time to do so, nor want a game to become my second job.
I had it installed at first and was considering playing it. Then they decided police were offensive and bowed to the Twitter mob and it edged me over to just deleting it.
The Smash Bros killer?
GAAS doesn’t work most of the time. They’re all slowly dying out, outside Warzone, Destiny, Fortnite, and Apex, and even those games have fewer players right now. Gamers want fully priced games with a solid amount of single player content for most genres. Mp can be free, but players simply want a full game. If the game would’ve had a for-purchase campaign, they’d have sustained more longevity. It’s that simple. That’s how you have engagement for a little longer. Destiny and CoD understand the value in this.
Yisus. I still play it, but they need more characters. It's honestly the besy f2p to play for me.
I mean, if the game was very profitable for a while, then it still may count as a success for the developers?
I thought it was alright. Had my fun for a bit and then moved on.
@somnambulance
That is so far of the truth
Lets hope this wont be the next deadservice game for the fans I could not care less.😅
@ItsBritneyB_tch
That's true tho. S2 grind is too much, and I'm mostly playing to get the challenges.
One thing I'm not gonna do is criticise it regardless if I can afford it or not (literally can't afford it) without getting my hands on it for myself and playing a ton of its games first. Cautious approach is perfectly fine but I don't understand criticising it without getting your hands on it first for yourself. Regardless in the future if PSVR2 is a success or not, I don't see Xbox or Nintendo currently having the balls to find out
Doesnt help that you get peanuts for all your efforts in the game. Thats why I stopped.
The issue is while the combat is fun there isn't much else to it and the monetisation is pretty bad.
Think I just commented in the wrong article haha. Think i might as well leave it in there
Too much coffee
Fun game but I lost interest pretty quickly. Haven’t played it in a few good months. The amount of grinding kinda put me off as well.
It's like trying to compete with Mario Kart with a game that has 5 characters and 3 flat courses. There's just no point, even if it's "free".
Big ol' oof. I remember when a couple Twitch streamers I watch were like "This is the best Smash clone ever! It's the best! Fantastic game!" when it launched, and now they never say one peep about it lmao.
It honestly couldn’t hold my interests for that long. It was well made- the actual game. But, the amount of content was limited like a lot of people said. They should've added a single player mode like Smash does and create their own big bad at the end different to Master Hand. Not everyone likes multiplayer . So right away, they alienate you unless you want to play randomly with bots. So overall, the single player element was mostly abandoned thus taking a big chunk of potential players away immediately. Plus, the progression was awful. It was hard for me to switch to other characters because I’d be so far leveled at one just to go to an empty slated character was brutal. Also hated how I’d be a new character and matched up with someone’s character who was level 14 which in most cases means a loss.
They had an insane first few character releases but then almost vanished. If they had a consistent schedule, the game would be still having a good player base. The amount of IPs available to them are vast. The potential for an insane roster was there. It was an absolute miss for them not to include Pennywise, Daffy Duck, Scooby, Harry Potter characters (assuming there was difficulty getting them), Smurfs, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, Dexter, Ed, Edd n Eddy crew, etc.
In all honesty, the game should’ve been delayed until they addressed a few of those issues, especially the single player aspect. The roster should’ve been bigger. If the company was having trouble meeting production demands, they should have expanded their team with the amount of money coming in from the immediate big splash. It’s just another game which had a great start but couldn’t meet the demand afterwards. Overall, Multiversus is a game with vast potential that may fall completely off the map because they had no vision for the future.
Nothing special about this game, so not a surprise it was easy to forget about it.
The notion that people thought this was in Smash Bros’ league when this was released is laughable. A free to play game with currency grinding and battle passes and all of the other tropes associated with live services, against one you pay £40 for and get an entire package, the £40 option will win every time.
The sooner this live service model dies off the better. For every Destiny or Warzone there’s 10 Babylon’s Falls or Avengers or Lawbreakers or Anthems or Destruction All Stars or any number of failed Fortnite and Overwatch clones.
@LordAinsley Finally someone else gets it free to play is free to waste your time. In the it's just passing the time doing your daily login, daily tasks, events it eats away at your time.
@GodofCapcom How so? Outside the truly successful titles, almost every F2P game has been a flash in the pan for a month of two and then fizzled out because there’s little that actually encourages the gameplay to continue. Multiversus was actually one of the stronger F2P titles to launch, but almost everyone I knew said the same thing: it’s fun for a couple of rounds, but it’s grindy and there’s nothing to do in the game outside mp. If that were a recipe for success, more people would be playing the game, and the same could be said for the other variety of F2P titles that have wilted recently, despite some of them having actually superb gameplay.
@Yukairi Man I would a new Playstation fighter not a free to play game just a payed game where i can put some time in without it making me waste my time. That's free to play and in the end you have nothing when its dead and buried. Just regrets that you where so stupid spending money on it.
@somnambulance
Cuz most people play those over sp. At best, out of 100m PS, only 20m can only say sp on the regular. Maybe.
Love the game but the grind is what stopped me from playing much.
I hate that I had to do specific moves/knockout to gain a burst of xp but just playing a match only give out 10 xp when you needed 1k just to go up one level in the bp, that's bs.
Stopped after buying Velma kitty cat skin which I love but regret since I only played two hours after buying and haven't touched the game since.
Also, STAGES!!!!! Where are they? So many same maps used, made the game boring.
@CWill97 I added this to my library since free to play, but don't see myself ever playing until they add a legitimate story campaign.
because it’s soulless indie garbage
i want to play console games , not mobile games . i want AAA quality , not cash grab quality indie garbage .
These games are like things ordered from Wish. It looks pretty on picture, but the product you recieve is garbage you throw away next day...
The game is fun, but they've really messed up with not having timely drops for new characters, or implementing a lot of local and online features, like playing against friends and ai, or being able to play locally with a friend as a team online. It shouldn't be hard to do, and seems like a half-year-long missed opportunity that's had an impact.
@Gaia093
@MKD88
but Sony is making 10 life service games.
@ItsBritneyB_tch Do you think it would have succeeded if released like Super Smash?
@Dr-M And?
@Dr-M I’ve never played Super Smash so I couldn’t say. I do think the pricing of the alternate styles and other cosmetics harmed the game. There was no way I was ever going to spend that much money on a single style, so it was easy for me to walk away. If the cosmetics were more reasonably priced and I’d invested money in the game (outside of the season pass) I may have had more reason to stick with it. But they made it easy for me to walk away. I also think the grind was too much. It was bad enough in season one but season two was even worse. I actually really enjoyed my time with the game but they wanted too much of my time to the point where it stopped being fun. It’s a shame but it’s the same mistake these kinds of games keep making over and over again. And they wonder why the end result is always the same.
@ItsBritneyB_tch Thank you so much for answering.
I wish that I can send your answer to them because I am sure they will blame everyone and everything except their predatory practices.
I would have been interested if this game had been released as a regular fighting game.
@Gaia093 Maybe I was not clear.
I meant that I totally agree with you yet Sony is still investing in 10 games despite what you said.
@Dr-M Yeah, it's probably going to be a bad investment. Statistically most of them are going to bust.
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