Summary
- Concord's open beta saw low player counts on Steam, raising doubts about its launch success.
- Concord may face challenges against established titles like Overwatch and Valorant. However, a strong narrative could attract players over time.
With its open beta weekend set to end very soon, it seems Concord hasn't garnered much popularity among PC players. The beta for the upcoming PlayStation shooter is currently free to play for all players across PlayStation 5 and PC, and will close out on July 21. However, some new data reveals that interest in Concord has been rather low on PC.
Developed by nascent PlayStation first-party team Firewalk Studios, Concord is a multiplayer first-person shooter that's part of the company's live-service initiative. As PlayStation's long-anticipated return to in-house first-person shooters since 2013's Killzone: Shadow Fall, many fans were interested in seeing what Concord would look like, but were left somewhat disappointed when the recent May State of Play revealed it to be a competitive 5v5 hero shooter. Complaints about unoriginality began surfacing almost instantly, but some still decided to give Concord a fair shake during its beta periods.
Concord Open Beta Rewards Revealed
Concord, developed by Firewalk Studios, is giving out rewards for its open beta that players who plan on getting it at launch might want to grab.
Those who pre-ordered the hero shooter on PC, as well as PS Plus subscribers on PS5, were given access to a closed beta that took place last week. Interestingly, Firewalk extended Concord's closed beta by another day, possibly due to dwindling player counts on Steam. Now, all PS5 and PC players have been able to jump into Concord's open beta for free over the past three days, and sentiments around the live-service title remain bleak, at least on PC. Recent data from SteamDB shows that Concord peaked at 2,388 concurrent players on Steam during its open beta weekend, with only 1,027 players online at the time of writing.
Concord's Open Beta Will Conclude With Underwhelming PC Player Counts
Considering Concord is supposed to be a major AAA live-service title for PlayStation, the open beta player numbers don't inspire much confidence about the shooter being a massive hit at launch. It should be noted that these are just PC statistics, however, and Concord's player counts on PS5 may tell a different story. Unfortunately, Sony doesn't share that data, so it's tough to predict what it looks like. Regardless, even though it impressed many skeptics during the beta periods, Concord will still have an uphill battle to fight for popularity among established hero shooters like Overwatch and Valorant when it launches on August 23.
It seems increasingly unlikely that Concord will experience the same level of success Helldivers 2 unexpectedly did when it launched back in February. However, ebbs and flows are not uncommon during a live-service game's lifecycle, and even if Concord releases at an ebb, it would still be entirely possible for Firewalk to steadily attract players over a longer period via an intriguing narrative slant and worthwhile content updates.
Concord
- Released
- August 23, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
Assemble your crew of Freegunner space outlaws and team up online with friends for thrilling 5v5 PVP modes across the galaxy in Concord.
Concord is a new team-based first-person shooter for PS5® and PC*. Handpick your personal roster of Freegunners from the crew of the Northstar – a group of outlaws and adventurers working as guns-for-hire.
ASSEMBLE YOUR CREW
From powerful mystics to skilled gunslingers and helpful healers, each Freegunner brings their own unique skills, personality, and abilities that cater to a wide-range of playstyles.
Create your own custom squads of Freegunners with Crew Builder to bring an arsenal of different role types to the match or focus on your favourite characters to master their gameplay and unlock unique modifiers, cosmetics, background lore, and more – you decide when to play your characters and how you impact the match.
PLAY. PROGRESS. PERSONALIZE.
Earn and unlock a wide range of character customization items and learn more about the characters, worlds, and factions in the Concord Galaxy with the Galactic Guide.
You’ll also be able to progress toward and unlock Freegunner Variants—versions of each of the 16 Freegunners with added Combat Trait modifiers to their base abilities. As you learn and master the characters, Combat Traits empower you to tailor each character to your playstyle.
