12 Minutes and Loop Hero are 2021’s most retired games, according to a list posted by HowLongToBeat.
A retired game is one that players have started, but end up quitting or giving up before the end. By this definition, 12 Minutes is the game that most players started and stopped in 2021, which you know, fair.
In second place we have Loop Hero, which makes sense when you consider it’s a game you can’t really “beat” in a traditional sense. After that we have The Ascent, which reviewed pretty positively but lost a lot of buzz after launch.
Then we have Outriders, which made a massive splash when it first released, but seems to have quickly been found to have too many server and gameplay issues to be stuck with. At the halfway point is The Medium, which saw mixed reception upon launch, although those that did stick with it really seemed to enjoy it.
At number six is Returnal which, despite being fantastic, launched without a run save system, a killing blow for such a difficult game. Oddworld Soulstorm is next, which released for free on PlayStation Plus and has seen big updates and revisions since it’s initial launch.
In the last few spots we have Back 4 Blood, Cyber Shadow, and Biomutant, all of which enjoyed decent buzz when they launched, but seem to have been dropped pretty quickly.
Interestingly, HowLongToBeat released a second list that measures the retirement by rate, saying, “Due to some discussion around the last retirement list, we've posted this new one by rates. The last was a slight popularity contest which resulted in highly played titles (Medium and 12 Minutes) making the list.”
This new list gets rid of Returnal, The Medium, and 12 Minutes and sees games like Genesis Noir, Cris Tales, Sable, and Omno make the list instead. It seems like the first list released was taking into account the number of players for each game, meaning that more popular titles like Returnal and 12 Minutes were making the cut as well.