MultiVersus has seen its player count drop by nearly 100% since launch. The Super Smash Bros.-style fighting game starring characters from the Warner Bros. Library of films and shows enjoyed proved to be a surprise hit when it was released in July 2022. Interest in MultiVersus has since waned, as the flow of content has slowed to a crawl, angering its fan base.
MultiVersus and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl owe a debt of gratitude to Nintendo’s wildly successful Smash Bros. Franchise. Both games attempted to use the Smash Bros. Formula and apply it to their back catalog of beloved characters. MultiVersus let players pit Shaggy from Scooby-Doo against Rick from Rick and Morty. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl let players beat up Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender with Ren and Stimpy. Where Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl quickly faded from public consciousness, MultiVersus seemed like it would have legs. And it did, for a moment. But it appears the tide has turned against the game that once seemed like it had so much going for it.
According to SteamDB, an online tracker that keeps tabs on all kinds of statistical data pertaining to games purchased and played through Steam, MultiVersus has seen a big drop in daily peak players this week, with the number dropping below 1,000 players. The official low for the game is now set at 986. That represents a 99.3% drop since launch. These numbers are a far cry from the hugely successful launch when MultiVersus peaked with 143,000 players on day one, followed by a jump to 153,433 players the next day.
Warner Bros. Had plenty of reason to expect that they had a long-term smash hit on their hands in the months after launch. Just one month after the game’s release, Warner Bros. Proudly announced that MultiVersus had been played by over 20 million people. Now players are leaving in droves. This can possibly be attributed to fan reaction to its Battle Pass system, particularly with its most recent Season 2 updates, its poor monetization system, and its slow addition of new characters to the roster. The last time a character was added to the roster was Marvin the Martian back when Season 2 launched on November 15, 2022. Season 3 was originally scheduled to launch on February 14 but was pushed back to give players more time to complete their Season 2 battle pass.
Season 3 is scheduled to go live on March 31. There’s no official word yet on which Warner Bros.-owned characters will be added to the roster, though there are rumors and hints from the developers that beloved characters like Samurai Jack and Walter White from Breaking Bad may make an appearance.
MultiVersus is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: SteamDB