The Call of Duty MW3 multiplayer launch is met with negative Steam reviews and a player count far below that of Modern Warfare 2 at launch

[John Elden Ring]

Via PCGamesN

Call of Duty MW3 multiplayer is here, but the Sledgehammer Games FPS is struggling to find its footing at launch, being met by ‘mostly negative’ Steam reviews and a somewhat underwhelming peak player count for Activision’s Call of Duty HQ, which was introduced in 2022 and incorporates Modern Warfare 3, last year’s MW2, and Warzone 2 into one package on the Valve platform.

Now that Modern Warfare 3 is out, plenty of players will be going head-to-head in the latest installment of the Call of Duty series, which celebrates its 20-year anniversary this year and has many of the best FPS games to its name. As players figure out the best MW3 guns, however, it seems the reception has been somewhat lukewarm after a rather robust performance from Modern Warfare 2 in 2022.

Firstly, it’s important to establish that Modern Warfare 3 isn’t a standalone game on Steam in the traditional sense – you have to play it through the Call of Duty HQ, a central hub that includes MW2, MW3, and the free-to-play Warzone 2. That means statistics such as player numbers are combined for all three games, although even this isn’t enough to save MW3 from a fall compared to its predecessor – and in fact, perhaps makes it even more damning.

On launch day, Modern Warfare 2 reached a peak Steam player count of 238,522 concurrent players on Friday, October 28, 2022. It climbed a little higher over the weekend following, to a high of 263,174, but given that MW3 hasn’t had the chance to take advantage of weekend players yet we’ll just look at that first number for comparison.

On Friday, November 10, 2023, MW3’s launch day, the Call of Duty HQ reached a peak of 177,881 concurrent players on Steam. That’s down 25.4% from MW2’s launch day peak – even though this year’s number includes players still on Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 (the latter of which is a free game), whereas the MW2 launch number was entirely players who had paid to play the game, as Warzone 2 didn’t release until November 16, 2022.

 

[flaccidsnake]

70b for a dying franchise.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

It will still be the best-selling game of the year because of the Sony marketing and bundles but I'm hoping the legs are completely dead by next year like Diablo 4 and Starfield.

 

[anonpuffs]

 

[Box]

The Phil Spencer effect