Starbreeze Studios’ latest title, Payday 3, has failed to recover from its rocky launch and continues to plummet to record lows for the franchise. This stands in stark contrast to its predecessor, Payday 2, which sees tens of thousands of players active at any given moment.
Payday 3 launched on Sept. 21, 2023 to widespread criticism. Its performance, gameplay, and mechanics were slammed by players and critics alike, prompting developer Starbreeze Studios to focus entirely on fixing it. Around four months after release, however, the game hit a record low and fell below 1,000 concurrent players on Steam, peaking at about 740 players in the past 24 hours at the time of writing.
It also has a shameful “mostly negative” review label on Steam, with only a third of players willing to recommend the game. While it may appear the Payday franchise has lost steam (pun intended), Payday 2 continues to draw in up to 45,000 Steam players regularly.
From server issues and poor gameplay to the game simply not living up to expectations after Payday 2’s success, Starbreeze’s latest has seen more obstacles than most. And while some fans held out hope that Payday 3 would eventually turn out well, it seems Payday 2 continues to be a better alternative, driving most players away from the sequel. At the time of writing, Payday 2 has 32,000 concurrent players according to SteamCharts, and even gained players in the last 30 days.
Starbreeze appears to have attempted to expand Payday 3 by launching a DLC pack in the midst of all the turmoil, which was met with—you guessed it—“mostly negative” reviews on Steam, with a top review suggesting players should buy Lethal Company instead, and have $10 left over to buy something else.
The rampant criticism of the studio’s handling of Payday 3 continues, and on Reddit, threads on the topic are innumerable. During the whole ordeal in September, I wrote that there may be hope for Payday 3’s comeback. Now, I’m not so sure.
