Payday 3 Struggles with Sales and Player Engagement

The developer of Payday 3, Starbreeze Entertainment, has acknowledged that the heist shooter is underperforming in both sales and player engagement.

In its latest financial earnings report, Starbreeze admitted that “Payday 3’s sales and player activity are currently at significantly lower levels than we would like.” The company stated that improving Payday 3 will be its “biggest focus and absolutely priority” going forward to ensure that the game lives up to expectations.

Despite the current challenges, Starbreeze expressed hope for the future, citing examples from the game industry where initial struggles led to long-term success.

Payday 3 Steam Screenshots

Starbreeze emphasized the importance of taking players’ criticism to heart, supporting the game, and maintaining an open and honest dialogue with stakeholders in addressing the issues with Payday 3.

The launch of Payday 3 was marred by server issues, prompting apologies from Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren. The company also acknowledged its lack of communication and failure to deliver promised patches, expressing awareness of fan dissatisfaction.

Despite initially boasting 3.1 million players, the number of players for Payday 3 has dwindled, with significantly more players currently active on Payday 2. According to SteamDB, Payday 3 has a 24-hour peak of just 302 compared to Payday 2’s 29,785, despite the latter launching over a decade ago.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.