Payday 3 Player Count Drops to New Lows 4 Months After…

Summary

Payday 3's average player count on Steam dropped drastically to just over 650 players in January, signaling a significant decline since its release four months ago.
Fans were displeased with Payday 3 due to major server issues and lack of content and basic features, such as in-game voice chat. The game failed to meet expectations and disappointed its player base.
Payday 3's development team has acknowledged the issues and is working to address them.

During January, Payday 3's average player count on Steam dropped to just over 650 players at the time of writing. This comes only four months after the anticipated Payday 3 was released.

Following its launch on September 18, Payday 3 quickly earned a negative reputation among fans due to major server issues that prevented many users from playing co-op or solo. Once these issues were solved, fans continued to express their disappointment with Payday 3 due to its lack of content and basic features like in-game voice chat. Although its development team has pledged to work on the game until it reaches a solid state, it seems that the poor launch came with pretty severe consequences.

At the time of writing, Payday 3's average Steam player count for January sits at just 656 users. This is compared to December's average player count of about 1,500 Steam users and September's average player count of over 28,600 Steam users. Since September's launch, it's clear that the vast majority of Payday fans have given up on the game, which many hoped would be a worthy successor to the hugely successful Payday 2. In fact, fans have flocked back to Payday 2, which averaged over 26,000 users during the month of January. Payday 3 likely has a lot of work ahead of it until it can recapture its fan base.

Payday 3's Player Count History on Steam (Average Monthly Users)

September 2023: 28,621
October 2023: 5,996
November 2023: 1,114
December 2023: 1,556
January 2024: 656 (as of January 29)

Recently, Payday 3's development team offered fans an update on the progress of new content for the game. The update explained that Starbreeze Studios is taking Payday 3's criticisms seriously and has put together a team of veteran developers to address the various issues. It further explained that fans can expect a detailed plan to be released in February, which will reveal the upcoming improvements and when fans can expect to see them added.

Starbreeze Studios has tried to improve the game in recent months, although Payday 3 still has plenty of shortcomings. In late November, Payday 3 added two free heists, a new skill line, new animations, and more. In December, Payday 3 added paid DLC along with some more free content. However, the updates were clearly not enough to draw players back, and Starbreeze Studios seems to be focusing on major updates in the future to help Payday 3 rebound.

Payday 3's improvements will need to be implemented before the game is overshadowed by competing titles. For example, Ulf Andersson, one of the original creators of Payday and Payday 2, co-founded 10 Chambers, which is currently working on a new co-op heist FPS game. The game is called Den of Wolves and will see players attempt heists in a futuristic cyberpunk city.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image

Payday 3

Display card tags widget Display card system widget

Display card community and brand rating widget

4 /10

Display card open critics widget Display card main info widget

Released: September 21, 2023

Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start Display card media widget end

Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Step out of retirement back into the life of crime in the shoes of the Payday Gang, the envy of their peers and the nightmare of law-enforcement wherever they go. Several years after the crew’s reign of terror over Washington DC has ended, they assemble once again to deal with the threat that roused them out of early retirement.

The legendary Payday Crew, dreaded by the law and underworld alike, is back. Ripped from their peaceful retirement to rejoin the criminal world by a new threat, one born from the chaos the Crew left in their wake. In order to identify and crush this new threat, the Crew is leaving their Washington DC roots behind them and moving to New York City. A new location will bring with it new challenges, but also new opportunities for a heister with a plan.

A professional heister knows it takes planning, hard work and a good amount of luck in order to execute a successful heist. In PAYDAY 3 the choice is put in the hands of the players, deciding how to tackle the heist, whether you sneak or go in guns blazing, whether you let your hostages go or keep them around as pawns, whether you go at it alone or bring friends. The choices are endless and in your hands, they will vastly change how the game plays.