Highguard really did release yesterday, and as the dust settles following its first night, it’s been a mixed bag so far. Despite almost no publicity between its reveal and its release, almost 100,000 people played it on Steam alone. Well, played might not be the right word, as it looks like login issues and server strain led quite a few of you to go check out Deadlock’s new character.
Deadlock and Highguard have more in common than you might think. Valve’s hero shooter launched to even less fanfare than Highguard. Fair or not, however, Valve is usually the exception to the rule when it comes to that sort of thing. Despite not really talking about it at all, and Deadlock being an invite-only game, it peaked at more than 170,000 concurrent players last summer.
As People Fell Off Highguard, Deadlock’s Player Count Went Through The Roof
Deadlock has been happily chugging along ever since, its player count consistently hovering at just below 30,000 people. However, two hours after Highguard launched on Monday night, Valve’s third-person shooter experienced a surge in players. 98,887 people were playing Deadlock on Monday evening. Not only was that more than Highguard at its peak, but it’s the highest concurrent player count Deadlock has achieved for well over a year, since September 2024, which was the last time it surpassed 100,000.
The timing at which Highguard’s numbers started to drop compared to Deadlock’s concurrent player count creeping past 98,000 strongly suggests that either those unimpressed by the former decided to switch things up, or they were sick of waiting in queues or being booted from Highguard lobbies due to the new game’s day one server issues.
Poor Optimization Largely To Blame For Highguard’s Terrible Steam Reviews
Highguard has not got off to a good start, opening to overwhelmingly negative reviews with a 1/5 rating on Steam.
Deadlock Got A New Hero On Highguard’s Release Day
If people were hopping from Highguard to Deadlock, they weren’t doing it on a whim. There was a reason people flocked back to Deadlock on Monday night, seemingly after trying out Highguard, and that’s because the Valve shooter got a new hero. REM is the newest playable character added to Deadlock, and they deserve just as much praise, if not more, as Highguard for boosting the game’s player count to its highest point for almost 18 months.
The jury is very much still out on Highguard, which is fair since it hasn’t even been out for a whole day. There will have been a lot of people playing on PS5 and Xbox, too, so a much higher player count than Deadlock, maybe even higher than Deadlock’s 2024 peak, since Valve’s hero shooter is only available on Steam. Its developers certainly seem to think Highguard will be here for the long haul, as the studio has already mentioned it might have a single-player mode two years from now.
- Released
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January 26, 2026
- Developer(s)
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Wildlight Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
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Wildlight Entertainment
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
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Full
