Once a title that shared the spotlight with blockbuster games like Starfield, Halo, and Microsoft Flight Simulator during Xbox events in 2021, Redfall from Arkane Studios, the team behind Prey and Dishonored, has faced a dramatic decline in player engagement. Released earlier this year, Redfall's journey since then has been fraught with technical issues and lackluster gameplay, leaving many players disillusioned.
Following Redfall's 1.1 patch in June 2023, the game has seen minimal activity, with occasional updates from its Twitter account being the only signs of life. Recent weeks have seen the Steam player count plummet to dishearteningly low levels. SteamDB data indicates that since its all-time peak of 6,124 players at launch five months ago, the player count has mostly stagnated in the low double digits. In the last week or two, it has frequently dipped into single digits, with just two players online at one point last Sunday.
As of the time of writing, Redfall had a mere 25 players online on Steam, fewer than all three Dishonored games and Prey. It shares player numbers with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Among Arkane's titles on Steam, only Arx Fatalis (19 players), Prey: Typhon Hunter (0, which received mixed reviews), and Wolfenstein: Cyber Pilot (0, a VR game) had fewer players.
However, it's important to consider the influence of Game Pass. Redfall has been available on Microsoft's subscription service from day one, given that Arkane is a subsidiary of Microsoft. There are undoubtedly still players enjoying the game through Game Pass and the Epic Games Store, but due to the limited transparency of these services, Steam player numbers are the only publicly accessible data.
Xbox boss Matt Booty previously mentioned that Redfall was enjoying "good play" on Xbox's subscription service back in June. However, the exact figures from Game Pass remain undisclosed, and Redfall does not appear in Xbox's list of the 50 most played games, potentially signaling a decline in popularity there as well.
The declining player count on Steam raises concerns about Redfall's future. Critics and players alike have expressed disappointment in the game's quality. PC Gamer's Tyler Colp gave it a 44% rating, describing it as a "lifeless multiplayer FPS that lacks any of Arkane's usual brilliance." Given reports that Arkane's developers were not enthusiastic about working on Redfall, its underwhelming launch was perhaps unsurprising.
While both Matt Booty and Xbox head Phil Spencer have voiced optimism about Arkane's continued work on Redfall, likening it to a redemption arc similar to No Man's Sky, the game's silence since the June patch and the dwindling player base cast doubt on the feasibility of such a turnaround. Although hope remains for a potential October surprise from Arkane in the form of a significant patch, the prospect of Redfall's resurgence seems increasingly distant.