Ubisoft’s free-to-play title XDefiant achieved 1 million unique players within two and a half hours of its launch, sources have told Insider Gaming. At one point, half a million concurrent players were logged in to the game on launch day. Admittedly, that’s a lot of players who had to wait in the menu due to server issues. However, the problems were resolved around eight to ten hours after launch.
The milestone makes XDefiant Ubisoft’s fastest-ever game to reach 1 million unique players.
The numbers don’t end there, either. At the time of writing (48 hours after launch), the game has just over 3 million unique players and around 300,000 concurrent players across all platforms.
It’s difficult to gauge just how successful that makes XDefiant, but for context, Respawn Entertainment’s hugely popular Apex Legends, which was released in 2019 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, amassed 1 million unique players in eight hours and 2.5 million within 24 hours.
Granted, the game is free to play, and its success will not depend on player numbers but on the revenue it generates from its Battle Pass and in-game cosmetics. The Battle Pass is competitively priced compared to other titles on the market, but in-game cosmetic prices are on the steep side, which is a sentiment that has been expressed by the community as a whole online. For example, one bundle named the ‘Phantoms Prototype’ will set you back 2900 X coins, which will set you back around $30 for four cosmetic items… Ouch.
As for where the game is now, Ubisoft is happy, and the game is well on its way to surpassing all of its internal milestones in terms of player numbers. However, whether or not the game can retain those players and make them spend their hard-earned money remains to be seen.
What are your thoughts on XDefiant so far? Let us know in the comments below!
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