Multiplayer Games That Died In About A Year

Multiplayer games can be hard to establish due to the area being so saturated. It's tricky for new franchises to carve a name for themselves in the crowded market, and sometimes it's not even the developer's fault. There have been some actually quite good multiplayer games released over the last few years that just failed to catch on, and have since shut down.

It just goes to show how marketing is one of the most important and effective tactics in the industry. However, not even that can save some multiplayer games which were ostensibly doomed from the start. Sometimes, gamers will just prefer to buy franchises or titles that are already established, rather than try out new ones or risk spending their hard-earned money on something different.

8 Strange Brigade

A Good Title That Has Had Some Recent Resurgence

• Steam Average Player Count, September 2018 - 290.8
• Steam Average Player Count, September 2019 - 39.6

Unfortunately for Rebellion Developments, Strange Brigade is a great game that just never quite picked up the player count it was hoping for. It's a unique third-person shooter which focuses on co-operative multiplayer gameplay. Gamers take on the roles of various archaeological explorers, in the vein of Indiana Jones. It had dramatically low player numbers at launch, which only decreased within the next year, sometimes even dropping into single digits.

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It's set in the 1930s and it's actually great fun, which is why it's so disappointing that it flopped. However, there is some good news as Strange Brigade has recently had a sudden surge in players over the last few months, with October 2023 seeing a +3220.57% increase in popularity. The reason is possibly due to a sale discounting the game by 95%. Whatever the reason though, it's nice to see some higher player numbers populating the game.

7 Evolve

Never Quite Reached The Heights Of Left 4 Dead

• Steam Average Player Count, February 2015 - 9,030.6
• Steam Average Player Count, February 2016 - 305.4

Evolve was an asymmetrical multiplayer shooter, made by Turtle Rock Studios, the developers behind the excellent Left 4 Dead. Evolve was seen as a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead as it followed a similar gameplay structure, but it never quite managed to take off. It was a unique take on multiplayer gaming, tasking four players to go up against one hunter player.

The hunter played as one of many monster designs and had to consume wildlife and evolve, eventually finishing off the survivors, whilst the survivors had to complete objectives and eliminate the monster. It was a critical success but instantly failed to retain its numbers after launch. The devs even tried a free to play re-release in 2016, but even that failed to entice new players. The servers shut down in July 2023 for the final time.

6 Paragon

A MOBA That Failed To Find Its Feet

• Early Access - March 2016
• Servers closed - April 2018

Paragon was a multiplayer online battle arena developed by Epic Games and released into early access in 2016. Unfortunately, by 2018, the servers had shut down and Paragon was never officially released. There aren't any exact player stats to be found, making the closing of the game more intriguing.

Whilst a low player count clearly had an impact on Paragon's fate, it's also due to the success of Fortnite that Paragon was abandoned. Epic Games transferred their resources from Paragon into the development and continuation of Fortnite which had an extremely high and successful player count. However, there is good news for fans as Epic released Paragon's assets to the public upon its closure, and it's recently seen a revival in Paragon: The Overprime, developed by South Korean studio Netmarble.

5 Lawbreakers

A Victim Of Its Own Ambition

• Steam Player Count, July 2017 - 4,572
• Steam Player Count July 2018 - 95

Lawbreakers was an online FPS that featured low-gravity gunplay where two teams of five competed against each other to secure victory. There were a variety of different game modes, and it was a surprisingly fun and innovative shooter. The problems came because of the developer's ambitions.

Cliff Blezinski, the developer of the game, expected Lawbreakers to be an instant success, and was in fact so confident that he made the conscious decision not to release the game on Xbox One at launch. After months of attempting to hype the game and label it as the future of online gaming, Lawbreakers died a quick and tragic death within less than a year. The servers were shut down in September 2018.

4 Battleborn

Overshadowed By Overwatch

• Steam Average Player Count, May 2016 - 4,274.6
• Steam Average Player Count, April 2017 - 108.0

Developed by Gearbox Software, the creators of the Borderlands franchise, Battleborn had lots of hype and interest leading up to its launch. It looked like a fun, visually stylish online shooter with some MOBA elements - and it was exactly that. Unfortunately, Battleborn simply failed to be anything special.

It was a game that was squashed by the success of Blizzard's Overwatch, which was released only months after Battleborn. The effects of Overwatch's release are prevalent, however, as its release is exactly when Battleborn's numbers drastically dropped.

3 Rift Sweepers

A Lesser Known Title That Fell Short

• Released in Early Access 7th September 2022
• Servers closed May 31st 2023

Rift Sweepers is a multiplayer game that lots of players probably won't have ever heard of. It was an interesting third person co-op shooter, packed with sci-fi elements and played similarly to Returnal. Unfortunately, Rift Sweeper's development was plagued with difficulties and the game featured some terrible bugs.

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The devs acknowledged this in their closing statement on the Steam Store, stating that Rift Sweepers was put "in early access prematurely. As such, it did not receive the attention and engagement we had anticipated." It's a shame because Rift Sweepers did have some solid potential, and it will be interesting to see what JOFSOFT put out next.

2 Super People 2

A Populated Start That Collapsed In Months

• Steam Average Player Count, October 2022 - 21,129.6
• Steam Average Player Count, June 2023 - 40.6

Another game that collapsed too quickly was Super People 2. This was an interesting battle royale game with classes where players could gain super-powered abilities and features. It featured more tactical gameplay than most battle royales and demonstrated some impressive visuals.

Super People 2 failed to find its foothold in the crowded battle royale genre, however, and servers were terminated in August 2023. It originally launched as just Super People but the 2 was added in a rebranding after significant changes were added to the game. Unfortunately, this rebranding could do little to save the dwindling player count.

1 Crucible

Amazon's Abandoned Child

• Peak Player Count May 20th 2020 - 25,000
• Peak Player Count May 28th 2020 - 4,000

Crucible was Amazon's first attempt at entering the video game industry, and it's safe to say it didn't work out so well. This was an online MOBA shooter (there's a theme here) that featured different characters all with unique abilities. The main problem was that Crucible just wasn't all that great, and the MOBA genre already had too many failed entries in it.

Within the first week of the game being available, the player count dropped significantly. The early access period proved to be a complete failure and Amazon pushed it back into closed beta by the end of June. Unfortunately, due to a negative performance, Crucible was shelved on the 9th October 2020, with development discontinued. Amazon would instead throw all their efforts into their MMO New World which has since seen a highly successful launch and maintained a prosperous community.

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