Another one of Ubisoft’s major releases this year appears to be mightily struggling as a new rumor claims that the company’s XDefiant game is seeing “continuously declining player numbers and lack of player spending.”
A screenshot from XDefiant (2023), Ubisoft
This rumor comes from Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming and he claims that “Internally, optimism for the game has shifted primarily due to the game’s continuously declining player numbers and lack of player spending.”
Henderson reported that one source informed him that “the game has been struggling to obtain 20,000 concurrent players across all its platforms.”
Another source shared, “They [Ubisoft] would probably be happy with that number.” This suggests that the concurrent player number counts are much lower than 20,000.
In fact, Henderson also shared that if the game does not turn things around by Season 3 it “risks losing its much-needed post-launch support.”
A screenshot from XDefiant (2023), Ubisoft
READ: Ahead Of ‘Star Wars Outlaws’ And ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Release, Ubisoft Lays Off 45 Employees
For comparison other team shooter games such as Apex Legends are regularly above 50,000 concurrent players. Apex Legends clocked in 192,783 in its last 24 hours. Valve’s Deadlock hit an all-time peak concurrent of 106,447 players in the last 24 hours. Team Fortress 2 had a 24-hour peak of 64,896 concurrent players.
Counter Strike 2 had over 1.3 million concurrent players in the last 24 hours. PUBG: Battlegrounds had a concurrent player peak of 589,160. Call of Duty had 79,504 peak concurrent players in the past 24 hours.
Overwatch 2 had 51,485 playing in the last 24 hours. Even Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege had 58,549 peak concurrent in the past 24 hours.
A screenshot from XDefiant (2023), Ubisoft
Henderson went so far as to claim that internally many employees believe that layoffs are around the corner especially at Ubisoft San Francisco.
He shared that one source informed him, “Expect more Ubisoft San Fran layoff headlines within six months.”
A screenshot from XDefiant (2023), Ubisoft
Ubisoft recently laid off around 45 employees earlier this month between Ubisoft San Francisco and their Red Storm Entertainment studio in Cary, North Carolina.
A spokesman told Bloomberg that the “difficult yet necessary decision was made to align these studios’ organizations with their future business and development objectives.”
Red Storm Entertainment was working on The Division Heartland, but Ubisoft reported in May it was scrapping development and redeploying “resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six.”
A screenshot from XDefiant (2023), Ubisoft
In the company’s first quarter sales report, CEO Yves Guillemot touted XDefiant’s success which launched its preseason on May 21st.
He said, “The quarter notably saw the launch of XDefiant, that is off to an encouraging start as we continue to grow the audience at a steady pace and plan a quarterly roadmap of content that will allow us to firmly establish the game over time.”
A screenshot from XDefiant (2023), Ubisoft
READ: Ubisoft’s Stock Plummets 12% Despite Exceeding Sales Targets
The report also shared, “The game, that topped viewership charts, acquired more than 10 million players within its first two weeks, with players praising the thrilling, fast-paced gameplay and the map variety.”
It also declared, “The game outperformed expectations thanks to acquisition and strong average revenue per session day.”
Henderson claimed the game had over one million unique players in its first 2.5 hours and over 8 million in its first week.
A screenshot from XDefiant (2023), Ubisoft
What do you make of this rumor that XDefiant is not performing well?
