DBD has lost 27% of players and it's falling.
Before I get into the downward trend, and the reasons for it from my experience of talking to other players. I will post the chart that shows what I'm talking about.
An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.
You can clearly see a 27% loss of players over the course of the last 2 months. This coincides with the release of Legion. But it's not the Legions fault, per say.
That release also saw a change to the games engine. This change not only broke the sound engine at the time, but introduced a bug that is still destroying games to this day. Yes, I'm talking about the frozen load screen.
No one likes 3 survivor games. Killers don't, and survivors certainly do not. It's boring. Even twitch viewership is down, because those kinda games are boring to watch. But there's about a 1 in 4 chance that you will be playing one any time you load into a game of DBD.
But this isn't the whole problem. Another part of this problem is Legion. Not the killer itself, but the atmosphere around them. It is currently completely acceptable to d/c against them. People have seen their favorite streamers do it, been in games where it's happened enough, or whatever reasoning they have, and they start doing it themselves. It's a plague, and not that cool new killer.
And since these d/c's happen so often, they are carrying over to other killers. People are just d/cing against killers they don't like. This means that even if you load into a 4 survivor game, it's not guaranteed you will have one. All it takes is for one person to go "oh, screw playing against Hag." and bam, it's a boring game.
This problem is killing the game. To the point that just patching the frozen loading screen probably wont fix the problem completely, as it has created a zeitgeist of d/cing against killers you don't deem 'fun.' I honestly don't know what BHVR should do, but it is clear that something needs to be done. Sure there are periods of loss on the charts. But the playerbase has dropped to where it was a year ago, and is dwindling for longer periods then when DS was released.
Edit: This is not me doomsaying. This is me bringing attention to the fact that there is a serious problem. I love this game, and want it to self-right. And so, i will now link the treads I have made with real solutions to the problems.
This is my petiton to hold Fog Whisperers to a higher standard:
I've been saying it for a while, but I've been hearing other people talking about this topic lately as well.
Ideas for fixing the d/c meta:
There's a hundred idea's floating around. I thought i'de give my idea's, since I play this game to much. 1: A D/c penalty needs to be applied.
And a game adjustment i've playested in KYF:
Second chance perks are Over Powered. Why? Because with a single second chance perk and a little bit of skill, all gens can be done in one chase/hooking.
Comments
It does when you see the size, and length. no pun intended. Yes there are some dips here and there. but nothing this substantial
I agree with your statement, you don't want designers fixing programming bugs.
But, that's why companies have management and direction. There's someone right now hiring designers and allocating resources into the cosmetic department, while other areas are clearly lacking those personnel and resources.
There are huge game breaking bugs that have been around for a real long time now. I think they should prioritize fixing the game.
Or maybe its time for high school exams, APs are around the corner, SATs coming up, its tax season.
You have to consider relevant outside factors when determining trends and allow for an appropriate corresponding margin of error.
DBD is a fighter. Most A-Sym games don't last this long. Don't lose hope for it.
I mean you also forgot the new matchmaking system is a joke survivors and killers are getting people from africa and their pings are horrible i had 7 queues as killer and survivor vs red pings over 400 mostly because the new matchmaking is stupid and gives you killers and survivors from pluto PLUS ALL THE BUGS like seriously fix your game behavior. but yeah most of what you covered plus matchmaking is what is making dbd stale.
This is bad?
looks at Hex : Ruin and Hillbilly with BBQ and Chili
Need I say more?
No, from that info we know you are bad at the game.
I think more of the quits is due to swf and high ranking survivors queuing with lower ranked survivors to go against low rank killers.. Think about it you start a game as a killer brand new to the game.. You go against 2 rank 1s 1 rank 4 and one rank 20 (your rank) and you get destroyed by great survivors.. Would you want to play after that lol..
I will just say that I really would like to see DBD on Xbox Games For Gold, if only so I can have my friends that don't play download the game to own for free and try to get some of them to come play with me. I know 1 friend in particular would NEVER play this game, but he would download it if it were free and I asked him to. If I get him to do that I can sucker him into at least trying the game, we've been friends for over a decade I'll have him play with me as an Xmas gift or something.
The new DLC will probably be released in a couple of hours. Let's wait a bit and see how it affects the player count. Afterwards, we can have a better discussion.
Still looks like a rather normal trend but yes, there are quite a few things that need a fix and I guess more people will quit dbd if they don't take care of those soon, regardless of DLCs or free weekends.
Broken matchmaking, poorly designed Killers, the upcoming ranking system adjustments and the SWF imbalances, just to name a few.
Waiting for that "new content player count increase" peanut was talking about. Cause so far, it's peak is still below two months ago.
When you try to say things like "there's a small drop in the spring" it's clearly a spin. We can see the stats. The peak for the past 30 days is 26k. That lower number was last spring, and was largely over one month. The player base, while still in the red the next month, was on the uptick.
It's not on the uptick currently, the charts are pretty clear on that.
Look, I love this game, I don't want it to die. Consider me the annoying guy shouting about smoke so it doesn't become a fire.
Hopefully it’s just a weekday thing that isn’t letting people play as much as others. When school is over for the week and people have a weekend off we should see a rise....
When school is over, more people will play a horror game.^^
Nice logic. Maybe we can see the issue with the toxic community here.
Maybe those are not manbabies… but real kiddos. XD
How are you putting students and toxic together in one? Better yet, I like how you assume I’m talking about high school and below when “school” encompasses college/universities as well. Kinda shows me where you peaked though lmao
@Speshul_Kitten
Nice assumption. But I made my BA already, so stop spitting nonsense like that, thx.
Maybe you should make up your mind, this is an international forum and I am from Germany, if we (Germans) talk about "school", we talk about kids and teenager.
Take a "peek over the edge of the plate". (Germany saying for thinking outside the box/outside your own small world)
Too late, the smoke you see is from a fire. I've been watching the downward trend for a while. People I know who love this game, but just can't play anymore. Not burn out, just absolute disgust at the direction, uninstalled and moved on. Though it is small sample sizes, I can still see the changes over the forums, streamers, content creators and Steam numbers.
We've hit the iceberg, and everybody is ignoring it.
Lmao no you don’t. When I say context of school in “years” for example year 10, then you’re talking about younger school. Since I said school you should assume it’s in general. Stop thinking everyone lives in Germany. Like I said, shows where you peaked.
@Speshul_Kitten
Oh boy… you really "lmao" about that?
I don't need to reply to that anymore, you can embarrass yourself pretty well without me.
Nice try but you kinda uber screwed yourself when you thought school meant just kids. so yeah, lmao.
This got a little heated.
But the fact still remains, the loss of players is now at 30%
Also, some of my favorite streamers are streaming other games now. Streamers that are fog whisperers. Streaming other games during what is normally DBD time.
I think I'm seeing flames in this smoke now.
DBD won't last the 5 yrs said then
Game numbers look fine to me. at 23k right now with a 25k peak over the last 24 hours. 20k - 25k is pretty much the norm.
You're taking this killer thing pretty well aren't ya?
What? Peak around dlc release used to be 40k+
Did you even look at the chart? 25k is the lowest it's been in a year. That is very, very easy to see. So easy to see that a Mod tried to say that the population is supposed to hemorrhage around this time, and I had to point out that this loss has gone on longer, and is far more profuse thenany other.
In fact, they have only had one other time of loss above 20% and that was a loss of 3k players over the course of one month.
I just want them to stop pretending #########'s fine and fix this.
A DLC just released...
Yeah, I've been watching this as well, and the numbers are definitely dropping. Earlier this week, Peanut claimed it was normal and would rise with the release of the new chapter. Well, that didn't happen. So what's the next excuse?
its the same player count when i check last time.
i dont see what you mean and i just checked it and its the same player count when i check last time. So is this a bait thread?
it's dropped slightly since the dlc release. Making it an even 30% loss now.
oh ok then. but it will get go up and down thats how its been doing for the past years right?
The reasons why I don't enjoy playing DbD anymore:
I don't mind game unbalance as much as the points above. I don't care about genrush or DS nerf. I just want to properly be able to play the game and get rewarded for it.
some up and down is normal, yes.
You aren't supposed to lose a years worth of growth like this.
For the love of the game please rework Franks Mix Tape, and Prayer beads as well as FIXING THE DANG LOADING SCREENS. I, for one, will not buy another thing in the game until the loading screens are patched.
It seems i did miss something in my original take on the player loss. And this is probably why some of my fave. streamers are streaming less dbd, and more of other , shinier, games now.
Que times being around the same time as a match.
waiting 4 mins to get into a 6-8 minute game is kinda.... not fun. And it's not great content to watch.
numbers are worse today then i've seen in a long time. but i have hope the lobby code reverting will help.
It's weird that my lobby times are better now then they were before. and there's less people playing.
Been sitting waiting for my second game now for maybe 30 mins?
Last killer was rank 18 and I'm 11 rn.
Matchmaking is still a mess.
Unfortunately, a majority of players don't visit the forums, so they won't even see the revert announcement. Most players either play a game, or don't. And the numbers were already dropping, They didn't even get the normal boost for the DLC release this time. If this fiasco drove more players away to play something else, there is a strong possibility that they will be playing whatever other game for the next month or two, if not a lot longer.
I've seen games from much larger and experienced game studios completely screw the pooch on their matchmaking before, and drive a lot of players away. What I haven't seen yet is them fully recovering from it.
Behavior was warned about all this when the stuff was on PTR. They have no one to blame but themselves. This damage was self-inflicted, and whatever fallout is deserved. Maybe in the future, they'll actually listen to PTR feedback. They already had Deathgarden die at birth, they really can't afford to be strangling DbD right now.
Personally, I'm giving them one more shot at fixing this sorry excuse for a matchmaker. One more. If they can't do it with the next matchmaker patch, I'm just uninstalling the game and washing my hands of Behavior and their products.
reasons why:
bad match making
my pc broke
the new bloody emblem update is so sh*t that even pro's find it hard to double pip.
You bring up deathgarden, which brings up another point to think about.
The companies financial health might be deteriorating.
Not only did Deathgarden die a sad death, but they just got through a major lawsuit after it was revealed they stole fallout shelters code and used it in the Westworld game (to the point that bugs that were in fallout shelter were in the Westworld mobile game)
makes you wonder if this is the only thing keeping them alive atm. And they are killing it.
Imho the biggest issues for players are the dc's, the matchmaking and the content of the last two chapters. Players were hyped for the Clown and were very happy about Kate, players loved the Spirit...
Indeed. And those exact thoughts have crossed my mind several times already. Especially since there was a post a week or three ago that linked to the deal Behavior made with Starbreeze to purchase DbD in its entirety, and it involved Starbreeze getting a huge chunk of DbD revenue until the purchase price was paid off. In other words, they are paying Starbreeze in installment plans from a majority of their sales revenue.
We can only assume that process is still taking place, since there was never a follow-up that stated they've "completed" the purchase and are finally free-and-clear from Starbreeze and that financial obligation.
So, take those payments to Starbreeze, the lawsuit, and the loss on Deathgarden, and it certainly lowers this consumer's confidence given the ongoing state of DbD.
This is where the makers of Last Year: The Nightmare should be kicking themselves in the ass. While the folks at this forum are die hard fans of DbD, for the average player that isn't and doesn't visit here, Last Year could have tried to grab them. Instead, they chose to launch on the Discord platform first instead of Steam. The game has been out for months with no fanfare and absolutely no Twitch presence. And that's what is allowing DbD to really hold on. For this type of survival horror, they're the only real game in town right now.
Well at least i can counter 3 survivor games as a killer simply by camping =)
I didn't even know about the Starbreeze deal. Damn. I honestly hope they fix things, this really is the only game in town like this worth playing.
Last Year when it comes to steam?
I'm saying the same thing most people are. "Sure, if they take out the cross talk."
They have to take out cross-talk and allow the ability to choose to play killer, as opposed to the random-choice system them have in place like F13 used. Otherwise, I've no personal interest in Last Year, either.
That said, though, unless Behavior gets their crap sorted in the next week or two, I'm done here. I'll just remove it from my play rotation, and continue on with Overwatch, Paladins, and Realm Royale. The latter two just dropped their new Battle Passes today, anyway.
sorry, instead of fixing the issue, they are distracting people with a new survivor dlc that's not going to do anything but hurt the killer side of the game.
I honestly think i'm done at this point. I'm not playing my usual times. I just hop on for a game or two every now and again. And half of them are 3 survivor games. but they don't seem interested in fixing that, they are interested in selling us stuff to replace things they nerfed. (MoM replacing DS) They hotfix the the hell out of Auric cell problems. but ask them to fix a frozen loading screen when there's been 2 major patches since it started? They wont even confirm they are working on the problem.
ps: I just want to add that this ash DLC is the first dlc they have EVER given us a release date for. and it's a week or so after the last dlc. Clearly they need money for something.
@SmokePotion, sadly, I have to agree with you. The way DbD is being run is like it's a completely F2P game where their only income is from DLCs and cosmetics. That alone would make me believe the game was failing to draw in new players, so their only option is to get the cash from the existing players that already paid the MSRP in the past.
Of course, that belief becomes a conviction when one looks at SteamCharts. Dead by Daylight is declining in a bad way, and it isn't the normal seasonal decline this time. Even the latest DLC failed to give it the bump in returning player numbers that a DLC usually would.
Right now, I see this game as in a spiral. The player base was already declining, the recent DLC failed to generate a bump in returning numbers (and therefore, likely didn't sell as well), and now they've created this matchmaker fiasco, the DC epidemic, and a host of other issues, that are driving more players away as the 24-hour Player Peak for DbD continues to get smaller.
Ash is popular, no doubt. But I don't see that DLC reviving what they've already lost. Not with the issues still front and center in the game, and affecting game play across the board.
Take the above issues, add in the financial loss Deathgarden caused, and the lawsuit against Behavior for the mobile game mess, and it's looking fairly likely, at least from the outside, that they're in need of money on some level. Especially when you look at Deathgarden as an ongoing financial expense. After all, the game still has a full team working to basically remake that thing even as I type this.
Not only is deathgarden still around, they are still trying to sell it for 30 bucks a pop, with a 24 hour peak of 11, and an hour peak of 0.
And i know i mentioned this in my last post. But i really don't think Ash was a good way for them to get money. Sure, he's guaranteed to sell to survivor mains. But he's bringing in 3 perks, 1 of which is really strong, for which the killer side is getting 0 love to answer for.
I have a small hope that they will use the Ash addition to patch the broken loading screen and punish d/c's. So there's hope there for me. it's why i'm still playing a couple games every day. i have hope, i love this game. But it's like loving someone that's truly suicidal.
At some point you gotta accept you can't save them if they really wanna die.
@SmokePotion
Agreed. I don't know how many matches I'll be playing per week at this stage, myself. And as much as I absolutely love Evil Dead, I don't see myself tossing Behavior money for the DLC at this stage.
The game needs to be fixed. Then, I will gladly toss money their way again.
And even though I come to the forums, I'm also like the majority of players who do not. DbD is not my obsession or my only real game. I also play Overwatch, Paladins, Realm Royale, and Apex Legends. If Behavior takes too long fixing this mess, I am one of those players that will just stop checking in on the game and could be another lost player for months, a year, or for good.
I'm just one guy, but as SteamCharts shows: We kind'a add up.