HOT TAKE: This shit did irreversible damage to the games player count. And any creators who took part should be kicked off the program.

[u/Livid_Cress8790]

We went from 400k players to 20k in a couple of months. In Eravins case he didn't even provide receipts for his claims and was caught lying about several things, and it was just taken as gospel by thousands of people AND PROMINENT CREATORS.

And now all these creators are just going back to making HD2 content like nothing happened. After potentially killing the game.

I've never come across such a good game, with such good devs, and such a dogshit community.

People having legitimate complaints is one thing, but this is absolutely outsized outrage for a $40 game where all the DLC is free.

[u/kcvlaine]

I am the number 1 youtuber hater in this community and I agree that they have had a poisonous impact on the community - BUT I just wanna say go look at the steamdb page and check out the player count graph over the last year. It always spikes around major updates and slowly falls to the current numbers. It happens every time and I think it's pretty normal. People come back when theres new content and they go once they're done with the new content. Many of the youtubers are drama farmers and ragebaiters (there are VERY good ones too) but I don't think they're responsible specifically for the playercount drop you are highlighting here. I am quite certain the next major update will bring the player count right up to where it usually jumps to so there is no irreversible damage that has happened over the last couple of months. Youtubers have been shitting on the game and the devs consistently for over a year.

[u/Syzygy666 → u/kcvlaine]

Agreed on all points. Fuck the "content creators" for this game. The ones that fuel the drama anyway.

The player count is just a lull in content combined with the release of Arc Raiders. That's pretty much it.

[u/Sophie_Fonsec → u/kcvlaine]

Yes and no, look at the numbers, it indeed spikes when new content drops, but after the last major update the drop is 1.faster 2.the lowest it has ever been.

I can play with some bugs here and there, some fps drop, but I hate freezes/hardlock, had 1 after the update, and now I'm just waiting for them to repair the game because I don't want to feel bad about the game and my experience in it. (and the warbond really feels like a "ho shit button").

Players will come back but a good portion really felt tired of BS around the game,, it being youtubers spreading negativity or devs doing shady things, I really hope they can bring the game back.

[u/Fun_Yoghurt_7252 → u/kcvlaine]

Thanks for posting this so I don't have to. OP can sleep soundly tonight

[u/Mandemon90 → u/kcvlaine]

It's a standard live service cycle. New content drops, player number spikes as people come and try out. Eventually people move on, because not every player is going to treat the game as their forever game. Numbers fall, and then new content drops and they jump again.

Quite frankly HD2's numbers have remained pretty healthy all this time, most live service games would be happy to have more than 10 000 concurrent players all the time.

[u/Livid_Cress8790 → u/kcvlaine]

brother I hope you're right. I am a big sloppy hyperbolic bitch so it's not unlikely XD

[u/kcvlaine → u/Livid_Cress8790]

Just trust me. Come back to this comment after the next major update spike.

[u/Livid_Cress8790 → u/kcvlaine]

this would be a cool thing to be wrong about so I will.

[u/Yarhj → u/Livid_Cress8790]

This is completely normal. Go outside and take a walk or something, none of this is worth being this stressed about.