6 ms·

Cyberpunk 2077 the Most Played Single Player Game on Steam

53 points by imbnwa 4y ago

VWWHFSfQ 4y ago
I tried to play Elden Ring on PS5. It was fun and I would like to keep playing it but it's just way too hard for me. It seems like it's just hard for the sake of being hard. I guess that's FromSoftware's MO though. In any case, I stopped playing it. Just don't have the time when there are more enjoyable games to play.
- thereddaikon 4y ago
  That's pretty much how it works with their games. Punishingly difficult. Often with unfair mechanics that you can only properly counter after having died many times and memorizing arcane sequences. Its a very polarizing kind of game. But those who like it, love it. Those who dont, dont buy the game.
- Krasnol 4y ago
  Did you play some hard mode because I thought it was quite easy most of the times on "normal" and I'm old.
  - sgarman 4y ago
    There isn't a difficulty "slider" or "setting" in elden ring. You can approach the game from different styles/strategies that may result in it being easier or harder though.
  - lc9er 4y ago
    I've played DS1, DS3, and Sekiro, and thought ER was the easiest of those FROMSoft titles. Two of the biggest changes they made to facilitate that were to limit invasions to co-op play (unless you opt-in to be invaded solo) and Spirit Ashes for boss fights. It's still very difficult, but I think if you find a good walkthrough, like FightinCowboy, it makes the game a lot more approachable.
- slothtrop 4y ago
  It's hard, but offers more options to facilitate gameplay than the others in the series. Devs seem to encourage communication with the player community as a means to get ahead, but really, players just read the fextralife wiki guide which can trivialize (most of) the game. Use the exploits if you find it too hard. I think the quest system was a glaring failure that did not translate well from the previous games, where you were all but guaranteed to stumble into NPCs just by going this way or that. Without checking the wiki I probably wouldn't have completed many. That aside, it's a huge success with a ridiculous amount of content. An average FS game would take me 40-50 hours, this one took 120+ to complete, and that's skipping some catacombs.
tester756 4y ago
77% positive reviews over 420k is not bad, but Witcher 3 has 97% over 550k I hope Witcher 4th can match 3rd
- ch4s3 4y ago
  I think it would have been better if they hadn’t gone so ambitious with their marketing. I bought on launch and have beaten it a couple of times. It’s a super fun game, with 3 or 4 viable play styles.
  - tester756 4y ago
    Good to hear! I've been really happy with my first run, really liked the story and graphics But I didn't have motivation to try other styles seriously :P
    - ch4s3 4y ago
      I just tried something else out on a 2nd play through. There's a lot of variation available. The difference between a Sandevistan run, quick hacking, and something shootier is really large.
  - theshrike79 4y ago
    3-4 actually different play styles. Witcher 3 had only one. GTA V had one, run away from the cops.
- TigeriusKirk 4y ago
  I finally played Witcher 3 and its expansions this year. I feel there's a good chance I'll never play a better game.
  - speedgoose 4y ago
    The story is fine and the game has good graphics, but the fights made me stop playing because they were so bad compared to games like Zelda Breath of the Wild.
tomdale 4y ago
I'm really happy to see this. As fumbled as the launch was, I played it on PC and found the world and its characters to have more depth than I'd personally experienced in a video game before. What broke my heart was to feel viscerally how much time and love the developers had poured into the game, dedicating years of their lives, only to have it all overshadowed by a disastrous, rushed launch. I for one am glad to see the game getting a shot at redemption, and I'm glad more people are getting to experience what IMO is a masterpiece of digital storytelling.
- Calavar 4y ago
  There's a kernel of a good game in there. But the big issue in my opinion is that outside of the main story missions, the world feels completely dead. Night City is huge and you can tell that there was a lot of passion and care put into the design, at least from an art perspective. But the player has no incentive to explore it. I see three main reasons for this: 1. You don't stumble upon content organically. Every event is premarked on your map and will remain frozen in time until you get there. And I mean every event. Even firefights between different NPC factions. They don't happen randomly/organically. They happen at premarked spots on your map. You're a tourist with an itinerary in an amusement park as opposed to a person navigating a living, breathing city. 2. There is zero reason to go anywhere without a quest marker. You aren't rewarded for peeking into random corners, for going off the beaten path, like you are in a game like Skyrim. If you do, you are met with an eerie sort of emptiness. Just lots of RNG NPCs, and a feeling that you were never meant to go there. 3. If you follow the markers to the side content, it's pretty hit or miss. There are a few extended, multimission side quests that are legitimately interesting. But the regular side missions (called "gigs") all sort of blend into one. They sort of remind me of COD missions: Exposition is thrown at you like a firehose with a monologue, then you kill a dozen NPCs, and only after the smoke settles do you realize that one of them happened to be the big baddy. And then the mission just sort of ends. And none of the characters involved ever come up again beyond a passing mention in conversation (usually). Sure, the story is there, but it doesn't feel like it has any relation to the gameplay. So what you're left with is a city that is nothing more than a backdrop for a fairly linear main quest, which while decent, isn't all that remarkable on it's own. So much was left on the table. I hope CD Projekt make a sequel where they take the time to really flesh out the world. They could have a classic on their hands if they do.
CAT0 4y ago
Title is wrong. Cyberpunk 2077 beats Elden Ring, but is far from the most played single player game on Steam.
- andrewguenther 4y ago
  Title is mostly correct. Cyberpunk 2077 currently has the highest number of concurrent players on Steam of any single player game.
  - dragontamer 4y ago
    Single-player only game. Which means Factorio and Civ6, among others, are right out of the discussion. Because those games support multiplayer, even if its relatively rare to have multiplayer games on those.
wing-_-nuts 4y ago
Uh, even their own screenshots show civ 6 and football manager higher, and those are primarily single player games. Weird submarine marketing piece for a widely panned game, just in time to get hype up for their dlc.
- filoleg 4y ago
  Civ 6 had a free weekend just a few days ago, so that would definitely skew the ratings. And football manager has a very dedicated and large fanbase, a lot of whom literally dont ever play any other games except football manager. More importantly, not sure why you brought up the "primarily single player games" part, given Cyberpunk 2077 is a single-player-only, while both Civ 6 and Football Manager 2022 have pretty active multiplayer usercounts. So if we count single-player-only games, as the title implies, it all seems correct.
- lostmsu 4y ago
  Are many people playing GTA V online? Looks like it has 3x active players being a 9yo game.
cercatrova 4y ago
It just goes to show that regardless of criticism online, marketing is what sells games (and indeed, anything). The fact that they fixed the game partially does help, but it is not a necessary property of selling a game.
- izacus 4y ago
  The fact that the game is pretty great helps as well.
mancerayder 4y ago
Has something changed since launch making it worth replaying? It worked fine on my 3 year old PC, but the story seemed a bit linear to motivate me to replay it. Has content been added?
- nvarsj 4y ago
  Edgerunners was released on Netflix. It’s really good and got people playing again.
  - mancerayder 4y ago
    Netflix launch makes the game worth replaying? I was hoping for content.. It's a very linear game.
    - nvarsj 4y ago
      Well it’s a very popular prequel story. A bit like Arcane for League. So yes, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it got people to play the game.
Aissen 4y ago
The Edgerunners anime is really good, so I guess it did help with the nostalgia.
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  I'm wondering if it'll make for a good case study for cross-media tie-in material actually helping the main product. Pretty sure anime for non-anime usually ends up bad, and even when they are good I don't think they really make much of a difference (Matrix Reloaded didn't need the Animatrix to be a box office success).
AdrianB1 4y ago
People play games years after launch. I played Witcher 3 2-3 years after launch, I bought Cyberpunk one year ago and I did not install it yet, waiting for a reasonable GPU to be available. I know people that play 10 year old games (for example the X Universe series or Mass Effect), so measuring player number is interesting, but not that important.
- officeplant 4y ago
  I just buy games years after launch once the eager masses have help work out all the bugs and the DLC's are all thrown in with the game for $10. It's very hard to want to pay $60+ for what is often an unfinished mess in modern gaming.
  - AdrianB1 4y ago
    I am trying to get the developers paid, so I am not waiting to buy but to play the games. Yes, having the bugs fixed and DLCs available is a great extra. But buying overpriced GPUs with power consumption of an electric car is a showstopper for me.
serf 4y ago
it's funny given that Cyberpunk 2077 was never promised as a single-player-only game. A not-so-insignificant portion of those purchases were motivated by the developers talking about multiplayer gameplay previous to launch, i'm glad that they got some gameplay out of it, but I would have felt pretty cheated.
- izacus 4y ago
  Why would anyone expect a primarily multiplayer game from a studio that built exclusively open world singleplayer RPGs? When exactly did you see these promises that multilayer will be somehow important in the game?
- yreg 4y ago
  This is basically a meme at this point, but why would you buy a game before its launch? It's not like Steam is going to run out of downloads. I think there would be a lot less toxicity and all of us would be better off if gamers stopped taking developer plans as gospel and 'promises'. Plans change. Scope changes. Specification changes.
0xCMP 4y ago
I loved cyberpunk so much, but I did wish the launch wasn't so bad. The game really is a great game and all you can see online is "it was bad. it is bad.". Mostly because of the incredible, and plausible, features they promised but didn't deliver and the fact that some things in the game are still in many ways broken. A few versions ago perks that sped up your reload speed did literally the opposite which was surprising to say the least. But to me there exists nothing that holds a candle to its cyberpunk world. Both the general vibe and execution in-spite of it's well known flaws.
notjustanymike 4y ago
I just started playing it this weekend, and am shocked at how good the game actually is. Due to the initial negative feedback I didn't go in expecting cyber-GTA, and frankly that's made a huge difference. Go in expecting a good story in an open world and you'll have a lovely time.

53 points by imbnwa 4y ago

I tried to play Elden Ring on PS5. It was fun and I would like to keep playing it but it's just way too hard for me. It seems like it's just hard for the sake of being hard. I guess that's FromSoftware's MO though. In any case, I stopped playing it. Just don't have the time when there are more enjoyable games to play.

thereddaikon 4y ago
That's pretty much how it works with their games. Punishingly difficult. Often with unfair mechanics that you can only properly counter after having died many times and memorizing arcane sequences. Its a very polarizing kind of game. But those who like it, love it. Those who dont, dont buy the game.
Krasnol 4y ago
Did you play some hard mode because I thought it was quite easy most of the times on "normal" and I'm old.
- sgarman 4y ago
  There isn't a difficulty "slider" or "setting" in elden ring. You can approach the game from different styles/strategies that may result in it being easier or harder though.
- lc9er 4y ago
  I've played DS1, DS3, and Sekiro, and thought ER was the easiest of those FROMSoft titles. Two of the biggest changes they made to facilitate that were to limit invasions to co-op play (unless you opt-in to be invaded solo) and Spirit Ashes for boss fights. It's still very difficult, but I think if you find a good walkthrough, like FightinCowboy, it makes the game a lot more approachable.
slothtrop 4y ago
It's hard, but offers more options to facilitate gameplay than the others in the series. Devs seem to encourage communication with the player community as a means to get ahead, but really, players just read the fextralife wiki guide which can trivialize (most of) the game. Use the exploits if you find it too hard. I think the quest system was a glaring failure that did not translate well from the previous games, where you were all but guaranteed to stumble into NPCs just by going this way or that. Without checking the wiki I probably wouldn't have completed many. That aside, it's a huge success with a ridiculous amount of content. An average FS game would take me 40-50 hours, this one took 120+ to complete, and that's skipping some catacombs.

tester756 4y ago

77% positive reviews over 420k is not bad, but Witcher 3 has 97% over 550k I hope Witcher 4th can match 3rd

ch4s3 4y ago
I think it would have been better if they hadn’t gone so ambitious with their marketing. I bought on launch and have beaten it a couple of times. It’s a super fun game, with 3 or 4 viable play styles.
- tester756 4y ago
  Good to hear! I've been really happy with my first run, really liked the story and graphics But I didn't have motivation to try other styles seriously :P
  - ch4s3 4y ago
    I just tried something else out on a 2nd play through. There's a lot of variation available. The difference between a Sandevistan run, quick hacking, and something shootier is really large.
- theshrike79 4y ago
  3-4 actually different play styles. Witcher 3 had only one. GTA V had one, run away from the cops.
TigeriusKirk 4y ago
I finally played Witcher 3 and its expansions this year. I feel there's a good chance I'll never play a better game.
- speedgoose 4y ago
  The story is fine and the game has good graphics, but the fights made me stop playing because they were so bad compared to games like Zelda Breath of the Wild.

tomdale 4y ago

I'm really happy to see this. As fumbled as the launch was, I played it on PC and found the world and its characters to have more depth than I'd personally experienced in a video game before. What broke my heart was to feel viscerally how much time and love the developers had poured into the game, dedicating years of their lives, only to have it all overshadowed by a disastrous, rushed launch. I for one am glad to see the game getting a shot at redemption, and I'm glad more people are getting to experience what IMO is a masterpiece of digital storytelling.

Calavar 4y ago
There's a kernel of a good game in there. But the big issue in my opinion is that outside of the main story missions, the world feels completely dead. Night City is huge and you can tell that there was a lot of passion and care put into the design, at least from an art perspective. But the player has no incentive to explore it. I see three main reasons for this: 1. You don't stumble upon content organically. Every event is premarked on your map and will remain frozen in time until you get there. And I mean every event. Even firefights between different NPC factions. They don't happen randomly/organically. They happen at premarked spots on your map. You're a tourist with an itinerary in an amusement park as opposed to a person navigating a living, breathing city. 2. There is zero reason to go anywhere without a quest marker. You aren't rewarded for peeking into random corners, for going off the beaten path, like you are in a game like Skyrim. If you do, you are met with an eerie sort of emptiness. Just lots of RNG NPCs, and a feeling that you were never meant to go there. 3. If you follow the markers to the side content, it's pretty hit or miss. There are a few extended, multimission side quests that are legitimately interesting. But the regular side missions (called "gigs") all sort of blend into one. They sort of remind me of COD missions: Exposition is thrown at you like a firehose with a monologue, then you kill a dozen NPCs, and only after the smoke settles do you realize that one of them happened to be the big baddy. And then the mission just sort of ends. And none of the characters involved ever come up again beyond a passing mention in conversation (usually). Sure, the story is there, but it doesn't feel like it has any relation to the gameplay. So what you're left with is a city that is nothing more than a backdrop for a fairly linear main quest, which while decent, isn't all that remarkable on it's own. So much was left on the table. I hope CD Projekt make a sequel where they take the time to really flesh out the world. They could have a classic on their hands if they do.

CAT0 4y ago

Title is wrong. Cyberpunk 2077 beats Elden Ring, but is far from the most played single player game on Steam.

andrewguenther 4y ago
Title is mostly correct. Cyberpunk 2077 currently has the highest number of concurrent players on Steam of any single player game.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  Single-player only game. Which means Factorio and Civ6, among others, are right out of the discussion. Because those games support multiplayer, even if its relatively rare to have multiplayer games on those.

wing-_-nuts 4y ago

Uh, even their own screenshots show civ 6 and football manager higher, and those are primarily single player games. Weird submarine marketing piece for a widely panned game, just in time to get hype up for their dlc.

filoleg 4y ago
Civ 6 had a free weekend just a few days ago, so that would definitely skew the ratings. And football manager has a very dedicated and large fanbase, a lot of whom literally dont ever play any other games except football manager. More importantly, not sure why you brought up the "primarily single player games" part, given Cyberpunk 2077 is a single-player-only, while both Civ 6 and Football Manager 2022 have pretty active multiplayer usercounts. So if we count single-player-only games, as the title implies, it all seems correct.
lostmsu 4y ago
Are many people playing GTA V online? Looks like it has 3x active players being a 9yo game.

cercatrova 4y ago

It just goes to show that regardless of criticism online, marketing is what sells games (and indeed, anything). The fact that they fixed the game partially does help, but it is not a necessary property of selling a game.

izacus 4y ago
The fact that the game is pretty great helps as well.

mancerayder 4y ago

Has something changed since launch making it worth replaying? It worked fine on my 3 year old PC, but the story seemed a bit linear to motivate me to replay it. Has content been added?

nvarsj 4y ago
Edgerunners was released on Netflix. It’s really good and got people playing again.
- mancerayder 4y ago
  Netflix launch makes the game worth replaying? I was hoping for content.. It's a very linear game.
  - nvarsj 4y ago
    Well it’s a very popular prequel story. A bit like Arcane for League. So yes, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it got people to play the game.

Aissen 4y ago

The Edgerunners anime is really good, so I guess it did help with the nostalgia.

Apocryphon 4y ago
I'm wondering if it'll make for a good case study for cross-media tie-in material actually helping the main product. Pretty sure anime for non-anime usually ends up bad, and even when they are good I don't think they really make much of a difference (Matrix Reloaded didn't need the Animatrix to be a box office success).

AdrianB1 4y ago

People play games years after launch. I played Witcher 3 2-3 years after launch, I bought Cyberpunk one year ago and I did not install it yet, waiting for a reasonable GPU to be available. I know people that play 10 year old games (for example the X Universe series or Mass Effect), so measuring player number is interesting, but not that important.

officeplant 4y ago
I just buy games years after launch once the eager masses have help work out all the bugs and the DLC's are all thrown in with the game for $10. It's very hard to want to pay $60+ for what is often an unfinished mess in modern gaming.
- AdrianB1 4y ago
  I am trying to get the developers paid, so I am not waiting to buy but to play the games. Yes, having the bugs fixed and DLCs available is a great extra. But buying overpriced GPUs with power consumption of an electric car is a showstopper for me.

serf 4y ago

it's funny given that Cyberpunk 2077 was never promised as a single-player-only game. A not-so-insignificant portion of those purchases were motivated by the developers talking about multiplayer gameplay previous to launch, i'm glad that they got some gameplay out of it, but I would have felt pretty cheated.

izacus 4y ago
Why would anyone expect a primarily multiplayer game from a studio that built exclusively open world singleplayer RPGs? When exactly did you see these promises that multilayer will be somehow important in the game?
yreg 4y ago
This is basically a meme at this point, but why would you buy a game before its launch? It's not like Steam is going to run out of downloads. I think there would be a lot less toxicity and all of us would be better off if gamers stopped taking developer plans as gospel and 'promises'. Plans change. Scope changes. Specification changes.

0xCMP 4y ago

I loved cyberpunk so much, but I did wish the launch wasn't so bad. The game really is a great game and all you can see online is "it was bad. it is bad.". Mostly because of the incredible, and plausible, features they promised but didn't deliver and the fact that some things in the game are still in many ways broken. A few versions ago perks that sped up your reload speed did literally the opposite which was surprising to say the least. But to me there exists nothing that holds a candle to its cyberpunk world. Both the general vibe and execution in-spite of it's well known flaws.

notjustanymike 4y ago

I just started playing it this weekend, and am shocked at how good the game actually is. Due to the initial negative feedback I didn't go in expecting cyber-GTA, and frankly that's made a huge difference. Go in expecting a good story in an open world and you'll have a lovely time.