Playerbase already dropping Concord’s PC release

Typically I don’t care about the “concurrent player base” of anything, because if we’re honest, I’m still playing Black and Truck Racing 2 on the PS2. The player base of those are me and the six other people playing Black right now. However, when a game releases there is usually a massive spike before an eventual dip, that or DLC releases. The two largest peaks for Elden Ring were the release and the DLC. Sony’s latest attempt at the multiplayer market has landed on PC, though you might not know it as while writing there are fewer than 100 players.

Developed by Firewalk Studios and published by SIE, the studio was acquired back in April of 2023 and Concord was revealed the next month in May. I think a large number of us didn’t see much of it until this year during Sony’s latest State of Play, which was mostly another CGI trailer with some gameplay. Concord is from most accounts considered to be a mix of Overwatch and Valorant, you know the mold we create multiplayer hero shooters on because they are popular.

In terms of Concord, that really isn’t the case on PC, where Concord debuted alongside the PS5 release. At its peak, the Steam release saw a whole 660 players according to Steamcharts.com. In the last 24 hours that has dropped to 267 players, and as I’ve already said, the player count at the time of writing is about 97.

There are several reasons this could be, but if you listen to the comments on Steam community posts of other Sony titles, requiring a PlayStation Network account kills multiplayer. We saw it with Ghost of Tsushima earlier this year. It’s funny given that Valorant requires a Riot account and a whole other client to play, but let’s say that’s not the issue. The tired argument would be the price, $39.99 with “in-app purchases;” compare that to free-to-play titles, and it is easy to see which most people would go for.

However, I think what is more important to point out here is that the formula Concord is built on is one we’ve seen before. Not so much down to a T, but certainly it is the pieces of the puzzle that just so happen to be from things we’ve seen several times before. I wrote about Deadlock yesterday, a similar idea to Concord, and for some reason, I’ve seen people say Valve is going to come out and revolutionize the world of hero shooters. Beyond very early in-development footage of that, we haven’t seen anything special because, much like Concord, there is nothing special about it.

Concord has released into a saturated market which is cheaper, has more of an identity, and has crept its way into the “casual” market. This isn’t to say it is bad but for the price and what it can offer right now, Concord is neither breaking into wider public consciousness like Overwatch and such nor is it cementing itself as something special for the small number of players that have/are sticking around.

Currently, Concord sits behind Baldur’s Gate 3, Ghost of Tsushima, Helldivers 2, Apex Legends, Warframe, Valorant, and Grand Theft Auto V (somehow) on the best-selling titles on PlayStation 5 right now. Concord is 37th just behind WWE 2K24. Maybe when it comes to PlayStation Plus there will be a desire to play it, but I think for its release, Concord hasn’t landed with a bang as its budget Guardians of the Galaxy cast would suggest it should.