Realm Royale, Hi-Rez Studio’s free-to-play battle royale that took Twitch by storm back when it launched in June of 2018, has suddenly resurfaced on social media after being inactive since 2020 to tease an impending revival of the title.
While no information about the nature of this reboot comes from the vague posts, an update to the Realm Royale test servers was quietly pushed out three weeks ago. There is no doubt a teaser of what players can expect from the game’s first major update since February of 2020. Most notably, this test server patch comes with an updated title on the main menu alongside various gameplay changes: Realm Royale Reforged.
Despite the lack of active development and developer communication since the last cosmetic content was released in late 2020, Realm Royale has retained a few thousand active players on Steam month-on-month. That continued interest in the otherwise abandoned game probably plays a major part in its return.
The game’s launch months were nothing short of explosive, reaching a peak player count of 104,557 in the first month and earning interest from many notable streamers such as Shroud and Ninja. That engagement led to a $100,000 tournament organized by YouTuber KEEMSTAR, featuring a vast lineup of prominent content creators. But Realm Royale‘s success was short-lived, as a series of poorly-received updates and a limited budget compared to its Fortnite competition led to a sharp decline in players and the eventual shuttering of development.
With what appears to be a return to active updates coming thanks to the loyalty of the player base that stuck around, it’s unclear what the scope of this soft reboot is or what success it aims to achieve. Regardless, fans of the battle royale title can look forward to information soon enough on what to expect for Realm Royale‘s reinvigorated future, which, until recently, didn’t appear to exist.
