Last week I wrote an article about the upcoming live shooter Concord, which is set to launch in just a few weeks. The game is hosting a weekend beta, but only players who have pre-ordered the game or have an active PSN membership can join. While we have no way of knowing what the player count is for the console version, the PC version’s player count is worryingly low.
This weekend, the beta has opened to everyone, which theoretically means player numbers will be much higher. But that’s not what we see.
According to SteamDB, which tracks various handy information on Steam, the game still hasn’t attracted many players. On July 18, the day the beta version was released, the number of simultaneous online players reached a peak of 2,388. To be fair, that’s still more than double the previous week’s closed testing. But 2,388 still seems surprisingly low for a first-party live shooter, and it’s certainly a sign that there isn’t much interest in Concord.
Player numbers also didn’t grow through word of mouth. On July 19, Concord’s peak player count was just 1,666, indicating that many people are too lazy to come back. Today, July 20, the peak number is 1,447, so at least the drop isn’t as severe as the first day.
Of course, we have no way of knowing how many players Concord has on PlayStation. It could be much better. But Sony is pushing for its live service games to be released on both PC and consoles to ensure a strong community, so with player numbers in the open beta so low and the only barrier to entry being some download time, it’s a big deal for Concord’s future. Not a good sign. At this rate, the game is going to need some incredible word of mouth when it launches, or it’ll end up being just another body in the live-service mass grave.
