Despite Rockstar Ending Support, Red Dead Redemption 2 is Trending Up
After breaking its all-time peak user count on Steam, I look into the overall trends for Red Dead 2.
Hey folks! If you don’t follow me on Twitter, apologies for missing last week. I ended up taking the week off from work to recharge so I wasn’t around to put out the newsletter.
As an update to the Is Destiny 2 in Trouble? newsletter, the game is on track to have its worst ever month since releasing on Steam. With only one day left in the month, the game currently has its lowest ever average and peak player count. However, it’s only one month, no matter how bad it looks. As a whole, 2022 is still outperforming 2020 and 2021.
Not to mention the fact that this is, of course, only the Steam numbers which ignores a majority of the player base. According to Charlemagne, Steam only makes up 33% of the userbase with the other 36% on PlayStation and 30% on Xbox.
And with that, on to the actual newsletter!
A Red Dead Redemption?
A few different sites have taken the time to report on Red Dead Redemption 2 hitting an all-time peak player count on Steam. So I figured now was as good of a time as ever to look at its historical traffic.
You’re probably aware that many view Red Dead Online as a failure, at least in comparison to the decade long success of GTA Online. Rockstar officially cancelled all future updates as of July 8, 2022 so by all means it’s officially “dead.”
Despite that, the game is actually managing to trend upwards at the moment. Even if that trendline is barely up, up is up. In fact, if you remove the data from November, Red Dead 2’s trendline is almost perfectly even which you could argue is still a success.
You can also see this in the game’s peak player counts. After launching, Red Dead 2 averaged a monthly peak of 33,000 players in 2020, shrinking down to 28,000 in 2021. 2022 has seen a rebound, surpassing the success from launch year, now at 38,000 per month.
The same is true for the average daily peak (rather than just the one peak moment from the entire month). 23,000 in 2020, 21,000 in 2021, and 26,000 in 2022.
There’s no huge story or anything for this week, just a cool observation that despite what you might think or the community might say, the game has actually been doing okay for itself.
To be fair, spending three straight years in the top 100 sales charts should have given that away a long time ago.
Five New Games 🆕
Since I missed last week, anything released in the last two weeks is eligible this time.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (#7)
Okay, this one doesn’t come out until tomorrow, but it’s already been on the best sellers charts for four weeks. If you’re into dark, bloody, co-op combat, this one might be for you.
Bendy and the Dark Revival (#8)
The sequel to Bendy and the Ink Machine! And this time it has been released all at once rather than the episodic nature of the first one which a lot of people found to be off-putting.
We Who Are About To Die (#40)
A solo developer’s early access roguelike title where you fight as a gladiator with a physics based combat system. It genuinely sounds hard as heck, but looks really, really good for a one person effort.
ZERO Sievert (#48)
I’m not going to explain extraction shooters (Escape from Tarkov, Warzone 2 DMZ, etc) again. But it’s that except pixel art, top-down, and procedurally generated.
Cardfight!! Vanguard Dear Days (#56)
I have no clue what Vanguard even is, but the reviews are very positive and folks are saying it’s the best way to play the card game online right now. That said, it does come at a $70 price point unlike other free-to-play CCGs/TCGs.
The Movers 🆙
With the Autumn Sale going on, the charts were largely dominated by games returning to the top 100 thanks to reduced prices.
+84 Call of Duty: Black Ops III
+82 Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
+76 Gotham Knights
+73 Stray
+70 Red Dead Redemption 2
In Danger ⚡
Total War: Warhammer III did drop off the charts after 16 weeks, but surprise, it has returned already after my week off.
Microsoft Flight Simulator (#100) - 52 Weeks
Phasmophobia (#92) - 115 Weeks
Hunt: Showdown (#87) - 21 Weeks
Warframe (#75) - 505 Weeks
Black Desert (#73) - 92 Weeks
Longest Lasting ⌛
When I created this section I didn’t include War Thunder or Smite for some reason? Got those added. Apologies for the inaccuracies.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (538 Weeks)
Warframe (505 Weeks)
Grand Theft Auto V (411 Weeks)
The Elder Scrolls Online (410 Weeks)
Rust (388 Weeks)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (367 Weeks)
Final Fantasy XIV Online (313 Weeks)
Dead by Daylight (290 Weeks)
War Thunder (283 Weeks)
Destiny 2 / Smite (177 Weeks)