WARDOGS entered another intense testing phase yesterday, with BULKHEAD unveiling a sizeable opportunity for players to get involved ahead of the game’s early access release on September 10. It proved to be a rampant success for the studio, as the game skyrocketed on Steam, hitting a peak player count that rivals or trumps some huge names in the space.
It also pushed WARDOGS into impressive territory in the beta test stakes, aligning it with other games that have had a hell of a lot of energy around their release window, like last year’s ARC Raiders.
Launch is Looking Bright for WARDOGS
WARDOGS will enter early access on September 10, and, by all accounts, it’ll be a transformative time for the shooter space. The team at BULKHEAD has promised that no monetization mechanics will surface during that window, building on an already trend-bucking marketing beat leading up to the game’s release.
The community is also hugely poised to take advantage of the game’s competitive nature, and an esports scene has started creeping onto the horizon.
During the recent FPS Games Show, which was hosted by BULKHEAD, the team revealed an insane clips competition that boasts a massive $100,000 prize. It could quite literally pay to play WARDOGS this coming week.
On September 3, the game’s latest playtest went live, and instantly, the player count accelerated through the roof. It hit a peak of 162,488 users, an admirable figure. To put that into perspective, last year’s beta test for ARC Raiders, arguably one of the most sensational shooters to emerge in years, secured a peak of 189,000 players.
Marathon, the Bungie-backed extraction title that was released earlier this year (to a woeful reception), managed to secure 143,000 players during a server slam before release. The Modern Warfare 4 beta only managed to hit 115,000 players on Steam, and that ran days before WARDOGS’ test went live.
Battlefield 2042, which was, at the time, a hugely anticipated first-person shooter, racked up a peak of 156,000 players during the open beta before launch.
Not only that, but WARDOGS’ playtest has managed to trump some sizeable, big-name games that have fully hit the market (again, all Steam numbers here):
- STALKER 2: 121,000
- Dying Light The Beast: 121,000
- Battlefield 5: 116,000
- Battlefield 2042: 107,000
- War Thunder: 125,000
This article is kind of moot, as BULKHEAD has stressed time and again that they’re not entirely fussed about these discussions around the game’s player count. They’re fully aware that numbers will drop at launch; that’s the natural lifecycle of a live-service shooter, particularly one dropping into early access.
When I spoke to the team at Gamescom, they reiterated that around 10,000 CCU would represent success and stability.
Do you think you’ll be playing WARDOGS when it drops on September 10? Let us know your expectations for this game on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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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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