Realm Royale Sees Massive Drop In Audience Numbers

Ever since its official launch earlier this summer, Hi-Rez Studios' Realm Royale looked to be a huge hit with the Battle Royale-loving crowd. But now, a new report from GamesIndustry International suggests that its popularity isn't nearly as surging as the publisher would like it to be.

At one point in time, the game managed to see over 105,000 concurrent players back when it first made its way into Early Access a couple of months ago. That's since changed dramatically, with a drop-off of 97 percent of its general audience.

This comes from numbers provided by GitHyp, noting that the game is currently sitting at just around 3,000 concurrent players, a far cry from the previous number. In fact, that's the most dramatic drop for a Battle Royale game since Radical Heights came out a while back from the now-closed Boss Key Studios.

That's a huge difference from how Hi-Rez's Paladins is performing, as that game is still sitting in the top 25 most played games on Steam.

Popular streamers did help the game at first, pushing it to the previous concurrent start of over 100K, but Realm Royale has since waned with players. On top of that, it's gotten a fair share of reviews that suggest it's a great looking Battle Royale experience, but it lacks the balance needed for the long-term.

There is a possibility that the game could see a turn-around, especially if Hi-Rez plans to introduce tournaments into the fold, as well as possibly getting popular streamers to hype it up again. And let's not forget that it's also making its way to consoles, with a closed beta set to kick off sometime this year for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. That could open up a whole new audience to enjoy it, particularly if Hi-Rez is able to convince the console makers to allow for cross-platform support. (Sony may not be that easy to sway, however.)

But for now, it's clear that Hi-Rez has its work cut out for it. It needs to figure out some moves to make Realm Royale a key player again. Otherwise, it's likely to go the way of the dodo, just like Radical Heights did.

Realm Royale is available now on Steam Early Access.