Dragon Ball FighterZ’s Promising Release Is Followed by a Massive Decline
Dragon Ball FighterZ released just over two weeks ago. Not only was it well-received here, it became Steam’s most-played fighting game in history. At launch there were 44.3 thousand active players.
But it looks like its popularity was short-lived: this number has fallen by 80 percent.
Last weekend, the concurrent player count was a bit over 9,000 on Steam. While this doesn’t factor in people playing the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game, it definitely isn’t a good sign.
For reference, Tekken 7 held the previous record with 18 thousand players on Steam at launch. While it also lost the same percentage of its player base, this loss occurred over two months.
Despite the drop in players, it still rests in the top sellers of Bandai Namco’s third quarter with 65.4 million yen. It also remains in the EVO 2018 lineup, where the game’s producer Tomoko Hiroki will compete. It’s possible that the tournament exposure will increase interest in the game.
Players have also taken to modding the game. Notable additions include Sonic the Hedgehog and Nicolas Cage’s face on Frieza’s purple body parts. Over time, the growth of this community could also extend the longevity of the game as it has for games like Skyrim.
Dragon Ball FighterZ’s developer Arc System Works created the Guilty Gear franchise. Expectedly, it borrows gameplay mechanics from this series as well as numerous other fighting games. In particular, the game’s control scheme and team-based play borrow from the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
Each player selects a three-character team and controls one at a time. During the battle, players can switch out to other characters or call on them to perform “Assist” moves. In order for the battle to end, players must defeat all three characters, which is a departure from team-based fighting games like Tekken Tag Tournament.
The game is available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows.