Also something people have to learn is that the steamcharts numbers can drop even when there are more players: Let’s say on release of game X there are 90k players playing that game an average of 8 hours, which results in 30k concurrent players on average that day. Now 2 weeks later there are 160k players playing 2 hours a day “dropping” the number to 20k concurrent players. Steamcharts changing tell you basically nothing about the playerbase shifting.
3 Likes
I asked for my money back - and got it. It is not the game I was expecting, and I found it a poor successor to the others.
4 Likes
Every game that releases will see a big drop 2-4 weeks after release, it happens with every game. Just look at new world, 1 month ago it had nearly 800k now it’s around 200k.
Do not forget a large amount of people are also playing on Game pass which is not tracked by Steam.
1 Like
And that’s just Steam numbers - I’d guess a similar amount are playing on Gamepass as well.
Plus it’s still #4 on Steam top sellers 2 weeks after release.
1 Like
I have criticized this game in some aspects, but the game is great and it is not boring, in fact it is frantic and a lot of fun.
I have only played the beta and I hope to buy the game at a discount. If you are a fan of AOE, there is no reason to abandon it.
2 Likes
For singleplayer its not very deep. In 2 weeks most players that play just to get the campaigns done, have done it.
For multiplayer I found that its not ready yet, at least to my satisfaction. Barely any custom mode, limited matchmaking options, water play is not rewarding or fun (but is mandatory), etc.
Not unless you have numbers for similar games that show a drop like this results in the games closing down right after launch.
I don’t expect most players to be hardcore multi-player folks, and unless they are there isn’t a reason to keep playing constantly once you’ve finished the campaigns; completing quests or playing a game or two a day is likely enough for a lot of folks.
I suspect you’ll see similar jumps and drops if new campaigns or stuff to grind is added.
Not too concerned about this. Number of players always drop after a new game has been released for a few days. No game is meant to keep all players and attract new players at the same time.
because i went to play Forza Horizon 5
Alright, revitalizing this thread as it does appear that the 24-hour peaks for players for AoE2 DE and AoE4 are beginning to coalesce.
https://steamcharts.com/app/813780
https://steamcharts.com/app/1466860
Do we still think that the number of players dropping out is just temporary or we do we think that AoE4 has essentially split the former AoE2 DE base into 2 approximately equal player pools?
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying AoE4, but I do have to wonder whether people have already moved on from the game or plan to return to it at a future point, when there is more polish + content. Thoughts?
2 Likes
After this patch I don’t have any motivation to play age of Springalds IV again… Will check in next patch, also a a company of heroes super fan, I will avoid any day 1 buy on this company, I regret not refunding the game before 2 hours, it’s sad because game play is not that bad but everything else surrounding the same is bad ( except sound design)
3 Likes
My friend, knowing you from the posts in the beta and stress test I assume you know pretty much why, do you want a funny image?
You know what I mean…
1 Like
Yeah, I mean I definitely have my suspicions and I think I’ve bored people with my “releasing unpolished games too early with a full AAA price tag isn’t a winning strategy” posts.
With that said, I’ve never played Warhammer II, but it does appear to be retaining about the same amount of players as AoE4 after 4 years, so maybe that’s actually optimistic?
I really don’t want to give up on AoE4 and I’m glad they’ve released a roadmap for upcoming changes, but let’s also be real: It might be too little too late…
1 Like
This is very concerning in my opinion, for the first triple A RTS in a long time expected to revive the genre, and it cant surpass AoE2 numbers. The moment AoE4 will sink under AoE2DE in player numbers will deserve a topic of its own since it will be quite the negative milestone. Make no mistake, Microsoft wanted AoE4 to blow 2’s player numbers out the water, and it is simply unnacceptable to not be able to surpass the predecessor game, game which AoE4 is based on and which it tried to improve upon. But here we are, a 20 year old game still leading the franchise.
Reasons are mostly the soft launch of AoE4, aka “we will have a roadmap for the complete game”. You just cant launch a brand like AoE with all sort of missing features, features that are in previous games, and hope people will stick to it until they get added. Word spreads like fire when it’s about a known brand.
1 Like
If I may ask. Are you concerned with the numbers, and why?
What I mean is there a number of players that will make you content/happy?
I have been comparing AoE2 and AoE4 stats since AoE4 launch. AoE4 dropped alot first 3 and a half weeks than in the last 10 days a curve is forming and it seems it is going to level around the AoE2 DE numbers. Btw since a week or so if you add AoE2 DE with AoE HD (2013) numbers in some hours of the day AoE2 has more players online. Of course there are the Xbox accounts not included, while AoE2 is so old with so many options to play there is still Voobly community even ppl on Gameranger lol.
Anyway what I am trying to say if AoE4 stabilise somewhat comparable to AoE2 numbers is that good numbers for you? Because in my older PoV if it gets close to AoE2 ( the biggest title of the franchise for so many years) it is not a bad result.
There is also the argument that a game needs 3k players online to have living community. AoE3 even AoE2 HD are good examples and Im sure AoE4 will be way above those. Plus if you like the game just try to enjoy. Im also a numbers guy and I know how frustrating can be some times. 
To be honest I never played warhammer 2 , never was a big fan of the warhammer saga despite enjoying total war games, what I actually mean is that you always brought up how the game was lacking gameplay features for an age of empires of 2021, and people always brought up why they should never focus on gameplay features and instead focus on competitive aspects like accessibility, performace or minimalism, and always used to bring total war as a failure example. And 2 months after release we are sitting at the same player numbers as a 4 years old total war game while relic can’t do proper balance changes and support that a competitive game needs. Summarizing, the game is just lacking features for being a good singleplayer strategy game and is lacking the support of the company to be a decent multiplayer aswell, i am currently NOT optimistic at all despite not disliking the game as you.
1 Like
The game was unfinished, no ranked, map balanced was terrible, game breaking bugs, some civs unfinished (HRE, Abbasid) a boring campaign, lack of game modes, you are forced to play the same game mode over and over again instead of let players discover what is the best mode… The big issue here is that they are trying to fix and add things that should had been fixed in day 1 release, soby the time they manage to “fix” the game, it will have a low player count and people will be asking for new content, I remember that for dow3 they even add a new mode to replace the MOBA one but it was too late.
3 Likes
I mean make me personally content/happy? Whatever the threshold is for the game to be continuously supported and have content added rather than abandoned because execs want to cut loses. I don’t know what that figure is, but that’s the motivation behind the post. Ideally, it would also be significant enough that we get an AoE5 someday, and not 20 years from now…
In terms of absolute success, AoE4 was (in my opinion) supposed to revitalize the RTS genre and (at least attempt) to bring back the glory days of the popularity that StarCraft2 launched on the eSports scene. While I don’t think Blizzard ever released numbers, some folks back then did a back-of-the-napkin estimate that the peak player count may have been somewhere around 300-400k globally.
So, to answer your question in short:
- My happiness: Enough players for the game to continue to be supported for years to come.
- Stretch-success metric: Match StarCraft 2’s success and become a regular staple at tournament/competitive levels.
1 Like
Yes these are reasonable. I do think we may see AoE5 in few years time. And I do think/ hope all the games in the franchise be supported reguarly.
However unlike alot ppl I dont find much e-sport potential. Not smth bigger than AoE2 is nowadays. For me personally the biggest miss for AoE4 is not the bugs, and unfinished details, which Im sure will be delivered in some point. To me it fails to convince is it a single player or multiplayer focused game, it come short on both fronts.
AoE2 thrives with its single player, and the vast majority of multiplayer games are friendly lobbies often against the AI, while the competative side is smth in addition. AoE4 has some fantastic cinematics and campaigs, but how many are they? Only eight starting civs. While high quality single player content is simply not enough.
On the other hand lower number and fairly diverse civilizations, desire for balance suggests a game dedicated to multiplayer and competative play. At the some time it lacks a lot of key features in that department. I dont want to get into the micro debate but unit control is more clumsy than SC2 and AoE2 and while the game has potential for big number of strategic choices it doesnt allow for high skill set.
At some point we will get more civs, better UI, hotkeys, spectator features, so we shall see how it ends up being. Yet the lack of focus in the early stages for me is worrying because you neither get flocks of casual SP plaers who get the game, nor dedicated MP communities from other games who are looking for the next big thing.
1 Like
Maybe they should consider actually listening to community feedback? They ignored the number one feature request, unrestricted zoom level (yes a tiny barely noticeable zoom adjustment is not what people wanted, obviously). They made ugly units which tons of people said were like mobile game quality. There are no cool units like in the other age games (teutonic knights, minotaurs, dragons, likeable siege weapons, etc.). They offered way fewer customization options than other age games for players to tweak it to how they like it. It looks awful on large screen tvs or projectors. No ranked. Poor game balance weeks after it came out (from what I hear, I dont own the game due to above reasons). Streamers cannot zoom out enough to be able to cast the game properly. How could the result be any different?
1 Like