In an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise, the player base for Titanfall 2 is bursting at the seams on the PlayStation 4. Compared to its usual numbers, this new influx of players has happened thanks to the inclusion of the game in December's PlayStation Plus game selection.
At the time of writing, nearly 90,000 players were online, fighting it out for supremacy. This is up from the average 1,500 that were online just last month. The spike is massive and should certainly capture the attention of developer Respawn Entertainment, publisher EA, and every other large developer that has quality games sitting in their catalogs that might benefit from a sudden re-entry into the market.
This sudden increase of Titanfall 2 players is surprising, and at the same time, perfectly reasonable. When the game first released in October 2016, it received critical praise from its player base and many review sites. Unfortunately, it commercially underperformed. Being released between both Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Battlefield 1 is likely the reason for this.
2016 saw several great games come out, but the problem for developers is that there is only so much cash and time available to play games. Even if several "perfect" games had launched, there may only be demand in the market for a few. This may make certain games appear unsuccessful, even if they are solid games. The market has just been oversaturated with too many titles at once.
Arriving onto PlayStation Plus is akin to a secondary soft launch becoming available at no cost to many players. While off to a great start, the question now becomes whether these numbers have any staying power. If users maintain their PlayStation Plus memberships, they will have access to Titanfall 2 and the other titles they have claimed over the years.
Of course, those who are jumping into the game for the first time in a few years (or perhaps ever), should beware. Those hyper-dedicated 1,500 players online before the burst of activity are the most diehard of series fans!
Most exciting of all is what this sudden explosion of interest could mean for the future of the series. If the game can retain these new players, it may justify the development of a third game in the series -excluding Apex Legends of course-. The sudden interest in Titanfall 2 should also be kept in mind as EA heads back to Valve on Steam.
Spring 2020 is going to reveal the full extent of the collaboration between the two organizations, and if Titanfall 2 is reasonably priced or even free-to-play with its current microtransactions in place, it may have a jump in player base on the PC as well.
Source: Reddit.com