Halo Infinite Has Lost Nearly 98% Of Its Peak Concurrent Player Count On Steam

Halo Infinite had a successful launch on Steam with 272,586 peak players, but these numbers have declined by nearly 98% over the past two years. The most recent iteration of Xbox’s popular franchise is struggling to hit the 6,000 mark, and hardly anything will bring back the disappointed fans. Some of the more significant reasons for this decline appear to be 343i’s monetization on customization and the lack of multiplayer maps.

Halo Infinite fans have been through a lot, including a lack of content, excuses from developers, and complete disregard, as the franchise received no mention in the recent Xbox Games Showcase. Despite the massive decline in player base, Halo is one of Xbox’s most popular franchises, which is why Halo Infinite allegedly had a budget of over $500 million. 

TIL Halo Infinite has lost nearly 98% of its initial player base on Steam
by u/Full-Plastic7324 in Steam

Even with a budget of that scale, the game failed to entice the players. One fan from the Reddit post stated, “I blame this on 343’s extreme monetization on customization and lack of multiplayer maps.” And after reading through the many comments, monetization, and lack of multiplayer maps do appear to be the culprits of this downfall. Some long-time Halo fans went into more detail regarding their disappointment with Halo Infinite:

Multiplayer was fun at first, but the extreme monetization made progress feel meaningless. The campaign lacked the tight level design of previous entries in the series. Overall, the game just didn’t have anything to keep me playing, despite being a long time fan of the series,” says an_edgy_lemon.

In an attempt to improve the game, 343i brought several updates to fix many bugs/issues, but they still failed to fix them, disheartening the players even further.

It’s dead to me. I came back after it was “fixed” and played multiplayer with a friend only to have our base desync with each other and disappear into the terrain multiple times. It may be “fixed” again now but it doesn’t change that in my opinion the game was over promised garbage. Companies really need to get back to releasing finished games,” says Flat_Neighborhood_92.

Halo Infinite is ranked between the 190-200th most played game on Steam, with dozens of indie games performing significantly better. The sixth main entry in the Halo series was released in 2021 and was first intended to release as a launch title on Xbox Series X|S. After receiving negative remarks for the gameplay reveal, 343i thought it best to delay and work more on the title. The game was eventually released on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.