Before the big “Foundation” update that surprise-launched this weekend, No Man’s Sky wasn’t in a great place. On Steam, the game’s concurrent player count hovered mostly between 200 and 500. It wasn’t even within spitting distance of Steam’s top 100 most-played games.
What a difference a solid update (after months of silence, which drummed up frothing curiosity) makes. On Monday, the game peaked at 8090 concurrent players on Steam, and its peak for today is 6921. It’s now right in the middle of the pack on Steam’s top 100, something many people figured would never happen again after the dick monster and Spore comparisons generator’s hype-deflating launch.
That’s quite a bump, but No Man’s Sky managed an average of 36,976 concurrent players throughout its launch month of August. During its first few days, it regularly broke 200,000. So a lot of people are back, but it hasn’t even come close to its exceedingly short-lived Glory Days.
I still have some reserves about No Man’s Sky transforming into yet another crack at “The Ultimate Video Game”, but if this first update is anything to go by, it seems like Hello Games has some smart improvements in store. It will be interesting to see if players stick around for whatever comes next.
Comments
12 responses to “No Man’s Sky Update Is Bringing Thousands Of Curious Players Back”
I really want this whole thing over and done with. I hated having my mind made up for me by the controversy, and I want Hello Games to win their redemption and go on to make amazing games. They clearly have it in them.
Was it really that bad to start with? I tend to stay away from hype trains, reviews, gamer opinions etc. I went into NMS not knowing much about it or expecting much, which is the way I go into any form of “entertainment”. Can’t say I was disappointment, I mean it wasn’t fantastic.
Gamers are the worst for “herd mentality”
I’ve been saying since day dot we really should have put the magnifying glass over the horde that this game attracted. The game and the dev studio aside, It was never normal.
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
Hell, PAYDAY 2 itself had a rather vile element of its player base act out in unacceptable ways towards Starbreeze at one point, but that’s not fair on the current population of players (new and old) to give them a blanket label.
Likewise, DayZ is a game I have fallen right out of love with, but as someone who feels this way, it’s very hard to delve in to where it’s currently at BECAUSE I have to wade past people making insults and yes, threats, to simply find out if it’s yet worth a play.
I am tired of this.
Well have a nap, zen fire ze missiles!!!!
But yes, it’s very frustrating that an element of the player base is what makes games undesirable.
RIGHT.
That’s exactly what I mean.
Why are we still talking about his turd of a game. Let it sink into obscurity. Everyone is tired of NMS and everyone is tired of hearing about Sean Murray. Let the wounded beast die.
By everyone you mean the tiny minority of people that think their internet comments and posts constitute the opinions of the entire internet.
Maybe the people that actually like this game just don”t care enough to post on forums and articles because of how the people that think they speak for all gamers come across.
I’m indifferent to the game and found this update pretty nifty 🙂
It is not AAA but it is hardly a turd of a game. If HG were still making shit up as they spoke like Trump then i’d understand your comment but they are putting a real effort in fix their damage. This isnt more screwing by making us pay for this patch (and apparently more), this is a correction. Only time will tell how far HG can take this game, but it is still a gaming story worth publishing.
Oh, you mean the everyone that turns up to complain about every mention of a game they are tired of?
Yus! My opinion is valid for 100% of the population. The internet has taught me that.
Anecdotes are just as good as evidence! 😛
Of course it’ll be big on its update week. It means nothing. Show player stats in a month or even 3 months time. Where it really counts.