Rainbow 6 Siege, the tactical first-person shooter from Ubisoft that seems to be immune to the effects of aging, has just passed another milestone in its two-year lifespan by accumulating a playerbase of over 25 million registered players. No doubt sustained by regular free content updates and fairly unique gameplay mechanics, Siege has come a long way from its mildly awkward debut at E3 2014, weathering countless borderline game-breaking bugs and hit registration issues, a little bit of Esports drama, and an occasional set of unpredictable balancing changes to become a game that many would agree is a fresh change from all the comparatively high-speed mindless run and gun multiplayer experiences that are available on the market today.
As impressive as Rainbow 6 Siege's success may be, Ubisoft clearly has no intention of resting on their laurels when it comes to the future of the game. Just this week, Siege received one of its regular content updates in the form of Operation White Noise, giving players the opportunity to play as two members of South Korea's 707th Special Mission Battalion, a new map set in what appears to be a South Korean broadcasting/office tower, and an additional operator from Poland's GROM Counter Terrorism Unit, alongside a number of bug fixes and whatnot. Next year, Siege will receive even more content, including a brand new PvE mode that revolves around biological warfare.
For reference, Overwatch reached its own playerbase milestone of 35 million players in October, though Blizzard's premiere first-person shooter does have so many advantages in terms of marketing and accessibility that it would be hard for most games to keep up. Rainbow 6 Siege, on the other hand, has to be content with the fact that it is a very casual-unfriendly game, featuring a decidedly steep learning curve, though many fans of the game will likely tell you that this is a good thing. Either way, one can only hope that, in the interest of competition, Siege continues its success in the years to come, and that other developers can use it as an example of how there is still a market for more hardcore shooters.
