XDefiant player numbers seem to be diving just months after its release. While the game launched to a lot of fanfare, a report by InsideGaming’s Tom Henderson is saying it is struggling mightily to keep an active audience these days. While one source says the game might sometimes reach 20,000 players across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox combined, another implies that the number is much lower than that. XDefiant had over 8 million players in its first week just three months ago.
Needless to say, things are sounding dire for Ubisoft’s XDefiant team, which has dealt with culture and management issues in the past. If player engagement and spending don’t increase by the end of Season 3, which will likely be sometime in the first half of 2025, Ubisoft could pull post-launch support and lay off more developers.
This is yet another case of a live-service game requiring many players to engage with it constantly for it to survive. In a world where games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto have so much attention, it can be difficult for these titles to thrive. That isn’t to say that a game like XDefiant can’t carve out an audience to keep it afloat, but it’s easy to point out this wasn’t the runaway success some thought it would be before release.
It’s an incredibly tough time to introduce a new live-service multiplayer game. PlayStation’s Concord knows this firsthand, being easily outperformed on Steam by games like Squirrel With a Gun. Speaking speculatively, XDefiant player numbers probably have a better chance than Concord of amassing the player base needed to survive throughout 2025. It has at least seen success before, so with some good updates and content added, there’s a chance it can thrive.
