Highguard sheds 80% of its player count, continuing a brutal live-service trend in just two days

Highguard is now out following its controversial reveal at The Game Awards 2025. There was significant skepticism ahead of its release, and the game’s launch suffered from optimization issues, which partly contributed to more than 13,000 negative reviews on Steam. There is also the issue that, although the game debuted at a peak of nearly 100,000 players, its player count has declined by 80%, continuing a brutal live-service trend from 2025 in just two days.

According to SteamDB, Highguard’s highest all-time peak was 97,249 concurrent players on its release date of January 26. While respectable, its 24-hour peak player count has fallen to 19,296, marking a decline of just over 80%. Its review aggregate also remains negative, with only “34.99% of 25,209 user reviews positive,” and the game’s decline is especially notable for a new free-to-play title.

It’s important to note that these figures only reflect the Steam player base. Highguard is also available to play for free on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, with crossplay across all platforms, but there are no player numbers for either console.

Highguard is a free-to-play PvP “raid shooter” from the creators of Titanfall and Apex Legends, developed under a new studio called Wildlight Entertainment. While the drop in players is evident, lead designer Mohammad Alavi told PC Gamer that Highguard doesn’t need “super huge [player counts] in order to be successful”.

Alavi explained that Wildlight Entertainment is a “small team” and that the studio is “hoping for a core group of fans that love us [and] allow us to grow”. The lead designer also addressed the online backlash, saying, “Being the ire of the internet hate machine sucks, but at the same time, [we] try to just focus on making the best game [we] can”.

Highguard player count decline continues brutal live-service trend from 2025

Ahead of Highguard’s release, we reported on The Gamer discovering that most new live-service titles released in 2025 lost over 90% of their player count.

According to the report, 11 of the 19 live-service titles released in 2025 lost more than 90% of their all-time peak player numbers, including FragPunk (113,946 to 2,248) and Skate (134,901 to 6,193). Another four games lost more than 80% of their all-time peak on Steam, including Battlefield 6 (747,440 to 129,124), which was released in October 2025.

Highguard hasn’t lost over 90% of its all-time peak yet, but it has already shed 80% of its players in just two days. As the first major new live-service game released in 2026, it continues the trend from 2025 of live-service titles rapidly losing the vast majority of their audience. This highlights how difficult it has become to break into the live-service market due to intense competition and growing audience fatigue.

Before its release, Highguard was dismissed by some as “Concord 2.0,” but it has not fared nearly as poorly as Concord, which launched with a meager all-time peak of just 660 players before being shut down by Sony in less than a week, with refunds offered. While Highguard’s immediate future appears bleak, the developers are committed to supporting the game post-launch and will not pull the plug so quickly, as Wildlight Entertainment serves as both publisher and developer.

The next major live-service game scheduled for release this year is Marathon on March 5. The game benefits from being developed by Bungie, the creators of Halo and Destiny. However, it also faces the hurdle of a $40 entry fee, unlike Highguard, which is free-to-play.

Live-service games can still find success, as demonstrated by Arc Raiders selling over 12 million copies in just two months while also retaining 90% of its peak player count. Sony will be hoping Marathon performs well, as the publisher has admitted its live-service push has not gone smoothly.