This may be attributed to the changing iGaming landscape as well. Many players are now flocking to playing older instalments of game franchises, standalone games, and classic casino games like online craps, which have retained their viewership over time. In the case of online craps, players try out both ‘Practice Mode’ and real play – depending on their goals, whether it’s real money betting or advancing their skills. This way, players save themselves the hassle of trying out new releases of games, which may disappoint them. As many gamers share the same frustration with their favourite gaming developers, traditional games have gained traction in the digital realm, offering the consistent level of excitement that many gamers crave.
The return of fan-favourites take centre stage
With the player count of Modern Warfare 2 tanking, many wonder where the players are flocking to. The answer lies in older games with active developers continuing to add content, such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, Rocket League and Modern Warfare. Fortnite, for example, is a good display of a developer, Epic Games, willing to make large changes to the game in order to cater for the masses. They had achieved this due to making mounds of changes and additions, such as the ‘no-build’ mode, along with continuing to affiliate with massively popular games, movies and personalities.
Rocket League is now approaching its’ 10-year anniversary and is currently experiencing its’ highest concurrent player count month after month. These are fantastic examples of how catering for the player is paramount for game developers that want to retain their player base while looking to attract more eyes to the game.
Battlefield 2042 had a very similar beginning to its’ lifecycle, with the game being released as unfinished, broken, and unable to run smoothly. This was clear from the Beta release of the game, with players unable to load into games, take advantage of various broken mechanics and until the game developers decided to withdraw from making more content for Battlefront: 2, the game looked destined to fail. Since, there has been a significant return of players, willing to give the game another try with refreshed content and various seasons being introduced, reviews of the game are gradually improving, alongside the player count increasing.
This is also the case with games such as DayZ, Apex Legends and Fortnite and is a display of what gamers actually want, which is a full game upon release, with regular and fan-centric content being added regularly. The general consensus currently is that the season 3 update in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may be able to revive the player base, with various introductions of content being made that have been missed, such as redeploy balloons, deployable buy stations and the re-introduction of some franchise classic weapons as seen in previous editions.