XDefiant has hit an impressive player count within its first week of full release. The future is looking bright for Ubisoft’s new high-octane first-person shooter.
According to a report by Insider Gaming, published May 28, XDefiant, released May 21, hit 7.6 million unique players in its first week, with its concurrent high at 700,000. For clarity, a unique player is someone who downloaded the game and started it at least once, while concurrent players are people playing the game simultaneously.
The number of concurrent players says a lot more about a game’s success and continued health than unique players, particularly when a game is free-to-play like XDefiant. 700,000 concurrent players is significantly smaller than 7.6 million, but it’s still nothing to scoff at. If you compare it to Steam player numbers, it puts XDefiant in the concurrent top 3 alongside juggernauts like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2.
That’s just the launch week for XDefiant, though. The real test for Ubisoft is continuing to capitalize off the hype and building a stable fanbase with new content and balance patches. Ubisoft recently released an XDefiant roadmap that promises four new factions, 12 new weapons, 12 new maps, and other additions like ranked mode, all within the next year.
Things look positive if the team behind XDefiant can deliver on those roadmap promises. Ubisoft has an unfortunate reputation for rushing certain products out the door undercooked, and XDefiant has its flaws, but it’s a remarkably stable game with potential for a bright future. The numbers don’t lie.
