Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.
Artifact, Valve, card game, TCG

Artifact Hits Rock Bottom as Player Base Drops by 97% Since Launch

This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information

Artifact, Valve’s first game in over five years, continues to lose players in a sharp decline since its launch last November. Just two months after its release, Steam charts show an alarming 97% drop in player count.

Recommended Videos

Two weeks ago, we reported that that Valve was struggling, having ended 2018 outside Steam’s top 100 played games. The contrast between that and its initially impressive 60,000 concurrent player count was shocking. But things have kept sliding.

Artifact

As we noted in our last report, the news will come as a big blow to Valve. Its other notable franchise, such as DOTA, Counter-Strike GO, and Team Fortress are some of the most longstanding and popular in the entire industry.

The publisher would surely have been hoping that Artifact would rival other digital trading card games like Hearthstone and Gwent, adding a new continual stream of revenue to their lineup of games.

The fate of Artifact now hangs in the balance, with gamers rejecting its premium content + microtransactions model that is neither free-t-play initially or free to keep playing beyond first purchase. The monetization strategy has backfired in a big way, it seems. The Steam reviews of the game highlight its poor reputation.

Although Valve has a history of turning around struggling games as it did with Counter-Strike: GO, it’s tough to see a way that Artifact can recover amid an increasingly competitive genre of games.

Credit to GameLyf for its continued observation of Artifact’s floundering player numbers.


Twinfinite is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Alex Gibson
Alex Gibson
Alex was a Senior Editor at Twinfinite and worked on the site between January 2017 and March 2023. He covered the ins and outs of Valorant extensively, and frequently provided expert insight into the esports scene and wider video games industry. He was a self-proclaimed history & meteorological expert, and knew about games too. Playing Games Since: 1991, Favorite Genres: RPG, Action
twitter