When it first launched back in July earlier this year, MultiVersus was the talk of the town. Finally, a platform fighter filled with recognisable characters that could potentially go on to rival Smash Bros. Fast-forward to now and the future of MultiVersus isn't looking too bright, with fans already discussing whether it's a "dead game."
Something that definitely won't help that narrative is the game's player count on Steam, as fans recently noticed that December is the fifth month in a row that MultiVersus has lost at least 37 percent of its overall playerbase on the platform. The game's average players sat at 1,911 at the end of November, but has now fallen to 1,206 at the time of writing. It's still a decent amount of players, but not the kind of trend that Player First will want to continue.
While the drop off in players is slightly concerning, it's important to take into account that the player base on consoles will probably be a little bit higher than on Steam. It's likely these platforms will also have experienced a significant drop in players, but MultiVersus is still fairly healthy when you consider its crossplay functionality and over 1,000 players on what is likely its least popular platform.
The main issue at the moment seems to be a lack of new content. MultiVersus has done admirably to consistently release new characters for players to try out, although the lack of a Ranked Mode, server issues, and the repetitive stages have likely contributed to this decline in players. It seems like MultiVersus is going through a bit of a lull at the moment, although heavily rumored character additions like The Joker will likely bring a lot of stragglers back for a little while at the very least.
Just like u/Prof-Wernstrom explains in the original post's replies, smart money is on Player First quietly working on new features to bring dedicated players back in. The majority don't think the game is in a particularly healthy place at the moment, although there seems to be confidence that Player First could have a strong relaunch once the game is feature complete.
With how strong it came out of the gate, it's difficult to remember that MultiVersus is technically still in its beta phase, as key features such as the Guild have yet to be seen in-game. By figuring out the game's monetization and adding a bit more variety in its maps - like it currently is doing with the recently released Game of Thrones and Space Jam stages - MultiVersus will probably stop this downwards spiral its going on at the moment. It was extremely popular upon launch, and there's no reason why it couldn't make a resurgence in 2023. Stranger things have happened.