Lord Of The Rings: Gollum Has Lost Nearly All Its Steam Players Already

Lord of The Rings: Gollum has been a poor release in a year crowded with exceptional games like Resident Evil 4, Hogwarts Legacy, and more. Following the game’s launch, critics were not kind to it, and it became the worst release of 2023.

The game could not utilize the popular Lord of The Rings license for a compelling adventure, and it looks like this has led to a massive reduction in the game’s player base on Steam.

Why it matters: A game’s launch window is usually the best part of its lifecycle. A loss of players is expected over time, but Gollum is losing players at an unprecedented rate.

Looking at the SteamDB chart, Lord of The Rings: Gollum was never able to gather a large player base, to begin with. The game peaked at an all-time concurrent count of just 758 players.

However, within the last 24 hours, the title managed to accumulate less than 200 concurrent players. At the time of writing, only 120 Steam users are playing the game which means that it has lost nearly all its players.

Following the poor launch, Daedalic Entertainment also apologized, promising to issue updates for fixes and improvements. However, it does not look like this apology has inspired confidence in players, as they are quickly abandoning the game.

A few words from the " The Lord of the Rings: Gollum™ " team pic.twitter.com/adPamy5EjO

— The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (@GollumGame) May 26, 2023

Lord of The Rings: Gollum is far from the only game to launch with technical issues on PC in 2023. A game like Star Wars: Jedi Survivor became infamous for its poor PC port but stayed at the top of Steam’s best-selling chart for several days after launch.

The same cannot be said for Lord of The Rings: Gollum, and even poorly reviewed games like Redfall did not lose players this fast. This points to issues beyond technical problems.

At this rate, it would not be surprising to see the game losing even more players. However, Daedalic Entertainment has another chance to impress Lord of The Rings fans after the recent failure.

The developer is already working on a new game in the franchise, which is expected to release in 2024. Daedalic Entertainment could use the lessons learned after the recent failure to ensure the studio’s next release is a worthy entry in the Lord of The Rings franchise.