Marvel's Avengers' player count has dropped to zero on Steam three times in the last month, suggesting the efforts to fix the game are not landing with its fanbase.
After years of build, during which Avengers: Endgame was briefly the highest-grossing movie at the box office ever, Marvel's Avengers was supposed to be a blockbuster game unlike any other. The end result has been something well short of its movie equivalents. What's more, Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics' efforts to right the ship seem to be failing miserably.
That's what the player count for the game on Steam would suggest at least. One Reddit user caught a moment during which the game registered zero active players on the platform. According to GameRant, that's the third time this has happened in the space of a month. While these might have been glitches, that doesn't mean Avengers isn't in trouble.
Whether Avengers' player count on Steam has ever truly hit zero or not, its base has been trending decidedly downward from its launch last September until now. It had already lost 96% of its players during its first two months. It was lifted slightly around the holidays and greatly boosted by the addition of Hawkeye, but on both occasions its new popularity was short-lived.
Whatever road map the Avengers devs had planned for the game was quickly derailed following the backlash after its release. That has resulted in new content arriving a lot more slowly as other problems have been fixed. No offense to the two Hawkeyes added to the game so far, but the lack of big-name heroes joining the game up until now will have undoubtedly hurt the game's progress and popularity.
The next big milestone for Marvel's Avengers will be the arrival of Black Panther and a Wakanda expansion at some point this summer. It's starting to feel as if that might well be the game's last chance to save itself. Yes, Spider-Man is also slated to join the team before the end of the year, but since the web-slinger remains a PlayStation exclusive, his arrival isn't going to help those low player counts on Steam.