Today on State of the Game we'll be taking a look at some statistics for all the games released on Steam between the 21st and 27th of August this year. After a couple quieter weeks, some with notable releases that didn't do so well, we're back with numerous titles hitting some impressive stats. Additionally one release this week is indicative that we may have reached a saturation point with a particular genre. Let's take a closer look at some of this week's releases.
F1™ 2017 takes the crown for this week of releases and it's interesting to compare it to last year's release of the same game. Both opened with strong numbers however F1 2016's initial fervor died down after 4 days or so. F1™ 2017, by comparison, is still managing to hit its initial release peaks some 2 weeks after release. By and large, that seems due to the numerous improvements that F1™ 2017 brings to the table, being much more than just the yearly update to a franchise.
The Escapists 2, the sequel to the previous Early Access darling, also debuted this week to strong numbers. Interestingly this release doesn't appear to have affected its predecessor's stats with the game still maintaining a consistent player base all throughout the release week. This was potentially due to a sale of the original about 2 weeks prior but the numbers are still holding strong even today.
Robocraft went 1.0 on Steam after spending 3 years in Early Access. The move out of Early Access has been anything but symbolic for Robocraft with its 1.0 update bringing with it a doubling of its concurrent player count. That boost has remained relatively steady over the past couple weeks as well, commendable given that this is the point where it usually drops off.
Quake Champions' release into Early Access mirror's that of LawBreakers release, something which you wouldn't expect given its debut during Quakecon. The mediocre stats we're seeing for games like this is indicative of a larger trend as the hero shooter genre is becoming saturated. Even big names are struggling to crack into this market which is reflected heavily in the overall stats. Whether this trend will change is anyone's guess but, for now, at least, it might be a genre best left alone.
