- Following years of build-up, Hellblade 2 was pitched as the biggest Xbox first-party release in the first half of 2024, but the game disappointed.
- Two months later, player counts are down into the double digits, with the game failing to reach even 100 players.
- On Xbox, Hellblade 2 is nowhere to be found in the top 50 most-played games.
While various big Xbox exclusives have yet to be released, Hellblade 2 has been the biggest first-party release in 2024 so far. However, following a surprisingly quiet release, nobody seems to be talking about this major single-player release anymore.
Even on Steam, the title has fallen below the most-played releases. The player count is down to just 51 concurrent players, marking an astonishing low for such a huge title.
Why it matters: Hellblade 2 launched to solid reviews and a generally positive reception. However, its gameplay was always criticized, which may have been the major reason for these disappointing figures.
Hellblade 2 was released on May 21, and Xbox considered it one of the company’s most important exclusives this year. The game was expected to do well on all platforms, whether Steam or Game Pass; however, the results seem to be the opposite.
The current statistics on Steam show that the game has 23 active players at the time of writing. While single-player releases are expected to see a drop in player counts over time, the drops are rarely as drastic.
Previously, the game peaked at around 4K players, meaning it lost 99% of its players. The situation isn’t much better on Xbox, with Hellblade 2 nowhere to be found in the top 50 most-played titles.
Perhaps this should have been expected after Hellblade 2 failed to reach the top 10 best-sellers on Xbox during its release month.
This failure also illustrates that Ninja Theory’s emphasis on visuals rather than gameplay was a misstep. Perhaps this feedback can help the team shape what is reported to be the next entry in the series.
Fortunately for Xbox, big titles like Indiana Jones and Black Ops 6 are still coming later this year. These will almost certainly be a much bigger deal, even if they cannot entirely compensate for Ninja Theory’s disappointment.
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[News Reporter]
Bawal is an MBBS student by day and a gaming journalist by night. He has been gaming since childhood, growing fond of the creativity and innovation of the industry. His career as a gaming journalist started one year ago, and his journey has allowed him to write reviews, previews, and features for various sites. Bawal has also been cited in reputed websites such as Screenrant, PCGamesN, WCCFTech, GamesRadar, and more.
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