Highguard's Player Count Has Already Plummeted by 80%

Highguard, the debut game from Wildlight Entertainment, has already experienced a huge decline in players, but it’s still far too early to count it out. Highguard was the “one last thing” announcement at The Game Awards 2025, which is something that didn’t really do the new live-service game any favors. Putting it in that spot only led to disappointment and honestly didn’t give the game a fair shot in the public eye, with many quick to compare it to PlayStation’s failed Concord experiment.

One of the fascinating things about Highguard was how quick its release date would come after its announcement. Highguard launched a little over a month after it was first revealed to the world. Despite the extreme online criticism leading up to its release, Highguard attracted thousands of players, ultimately overwhelming the game and leading to some serious technical issues and matchmaking problems that caused it to be review-bombed (among other reasons, like the simple fact that the game is a hero shooter).

All Characters in Highguard

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Highguard Steam Player Count Chart

Whether it was the unfortunate technical issues at launch or the negativity surrounding the game, Highguard‘s player count has already taken a massive hit. Upon release, Highguard peaked at 97,249 concurrent players, according to data from SteamDB. The game’s latest 24-hour peak has it at 19,296 concurrent players. This is a drop of about 80%, and if we go by who is currently playing the game at the time of this writing, it paints an even bleaker picture, as there’s just 11,500 people online right now (2:30pm CST on Wednesday, January 28). While this may worry those that actually like Highguard, it’s not all doom and gloom. Keep in mind Concord‘s player count didn’t even break a 700 all-time peak, so Highguard is still wildly more successful than that game.

Something that should work greatly in Highguard‘s favor is that it’s a good, free-to-play game, whereas Concord was $40. Highguard suffers from the same pitfalls that many other live-service games do in terms of monetization, but the core gameplay is a lot of fun, with solid shooting action and a unique Frankenstein’s monster of FPS gimmicks that all add up to an exhilarating experience. Word of mouth could eventually turn in Highguard‘s favor and draw more people to the game over time.

There are no numbers for Highguard on consoles, so it’s unclear how the game is performing on PS5 and Xbox.

Wildlight Entertainment also has aggressive post-launch plans for Highguard that have already been clearly laid out. Highguard‘s 2026 roadmap suggests that there will be frequent and substantial content updates for the game throughout the year, with a new playable character added every other month or so, alongside a ton of other content.

The real first major test for Highguard and its potential to survive long-term will come this weekend. Highguard launched on a Monday, which is hardly a day for peak gaming hours. If Highguard updates get the matchmaking and other technical problems under control, the game could very well enjoy a successful weekend that draws in new players and keeps current fans engaged.

Of course, it’s also possible that Highguard‘s player count will continue to decline, and the game will eventually meet the same fate as Concord and other live-service shooters that have shut down over the years. But even if that does happen, Highguard‘s player count is strong enough out of the gate that it should be able to survive a lot longer than Concord. Whether it has the legs of something like Overwatch remains to be seen, but it will definitely be interesting to see how the game evolves in the months to come.