Dying Light: Bad Blood player counts haven’t started strong

Dying Light: Bad Blood isn’t pulling in big numbers . Techland’s “brutal royale” brings some PUBG DNA to the world of zombie parkour, but hasn’t yet gained traction with a wide player base. How things shake out in the long-term remains to be seen, but following the success of the original Dying Light the numbers are surprising.

Bad Blood peaked at just 455 concurrent players since launching less than two weeks ago. Today, the peak is just over 100, and at times the count has dropped as low as the 40s. That’s not as damning as it would be for a proper battle royale – Bad Blood matches are only 12-players – but that still represents some long wait times before your game gets started.

The numbers come via GitHyp, and while their pronouncement that the game’s “basically already dead” is more than a little premature, the counts aren’t great. The original Dying Light, released in 2015, still regularly reaches player counts in the thousands, and it’s never dipped as low as Bad Blood’s highest high.

Steam reviews for Bad Blood are currently mixed, but there’s no major throughline for the criticisms. It’s still in Early Access, and there’s time for things to turn around ahead of the planned launch next year. But after the success of the original, this start isn’t impressive. Our early impressions of Dying Light’s brutal royale have been quite positive, so hopefully Techland can find the proper sauce to bring it together.

Regardless, the Dying Light 2 release date is still on the way, which will offer fans a much more traditional sequel with emphasis on big choices and narrative consequence.

Buy Now