Splitgate 2 was released on June 6, 2025, but it didn’t receive the reception that 1047 Games had been hoping for. Following a few marketing mishaps that saw the studio’s CEO come under fire at Summer Game Fest, the wind was taken out of the game’s sails, and that hit was exacerbated by exorbitant microtransactions revealed at launch.
Now that the game has been on the market for more than a month, fans are reflecting and trying to decide if the release was a success. Given the dwindling player counts and lack of traffic when it comes to viewership and content creation, it looks as though it wasn’t.
Recently, a report was published highlighting the key flaws in Splitgate 2’s performance and the estimated $409,000 spent on influencer marketing around the game’s release.
‘Make FPS Great Again’
In a report published on LinkedIn, Streamforge’s co-founder, Nick Lombardi, took a deep dive into Splitgate 2’s marketing and release window. He traced out the full lifecycle of Splitgate 2’s promotional phases, including an immersive experience arranged at Gamescom 2024 that saw thousands of visitors show up.
The good work was undone when Ian Proulx, CEO, took to the stage at Summer Game Fest, but the team attempted to live and learn and lean into the community to shore up some of the damage.
Lombardi’s report focused on the estimated amounts spent by 1047 Games on marketing, specifically targeting influencer campaigns, which are run-of-the-mill considerations for studios these days.
Between Twitch and YouTube, Lombardi estimates that 1047 Games could have spent $408,000 on influencer campaigns. Here’s how the numbers were broken down:
1047 Games’ estimated $408,542 influencer marketing budget for Splitgate 2 was overwhelmingly concentrated on Twitch, which received 83.6% of the total investment despite generating less than 20% of total views.
YouTube Videos received 12.8% of budget, while YouTube Shorts captured just 3.4% despite generating nearly 5 million views. TikTok received zero investment despite generating over 7 million organic views, representing a significant missed opportunity.
Lombardi suggested that the low capture rates were ‘surprising’ and theorized that the mixed reception of the game is what caused ‘dampened creator enthusiasm’ for Splitgate 2.
Despite not sponsoring ‘megastars’ to play Splitgate 2 at launch, 1047 Games still invested a wedge in influencers, and it appears that it might not have paid off, given that later in June, layoffs were made at the firm.
This is a sentiment echoed by Lombardi in his report:
Most tellingly, 1047 Games laid off staff within weeks of launch and the co-founders forfeited their salaries. This serves as a stark reminder that no amount of influencer marketing can compensate for poor product-market fit and tone-deaf messaging.
The campaign’s technical execution was solid, but it was ultimately marketing a product that had alienated its core audience in pursuit of mainstream appeal. Sometimes the best influencer strategy can’t overcome fundamental positioning failures.
Do you think Splitgate 2 was a success at launch, or has it ultimately faded out of existence far too quickly? Let me know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the former Dead Island 2 dev addressing the delay
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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