Payday 3 hits abysmal lows on Steam as fans stay loyal to previous entry

Starbreeze Studios’ latest title, Payday 3, has failed to recover from its rocky launch and continues to plummet to record lows for the franchise. This stands in stark contrast to its predecessor, Payday 2, which sees tens of thousands of players active at any given moment.

Payday 3 launched on Sept. 21, 2023 to widespread criticism. Its performance, gameplay, and mechanics were slammed by players and critics alike, prompting developer Starbreeze Studios to focus entirely on fixing it. Around four months after release, however, the game hit a record low and fell below 1,000 concurrent players on Steam, peaking at about 740 players in the past 24 hours at the time of writing.