Just over a year after its original release, Dying Light 2 is seeing its Steam player count fall below 2015’s original Dying Light, as the parkour-focused zombie game struggles to recover from complaints about its story and side quests, despite their solid free run. and hand-to-hand combat. Dying Light 2 DLC is on the way, with developer Techland dropping a host of new items in the coming months. However, it remains to be seen if this will bring back some of Dying Light 2’s player base.
As of this writing, the original Dying Light has 8,270 concurrent players on Steam, with a 24-hour peak of 9,177. Dying Light 2, on the other hand, has just 5,396 players and a 24-hour peak of 6 455.
Released in February 2022, Dying Light 2 initially enjoyed a resurgence in popularity on Steam, registering a record player count of 274,983. This figure is still well above the all-time high of the original Dying Light, at just over 45,000. The steep drop in Dying Light 2’s player count, as tracked on SteamDB, represents some of the parkour game’s current issues.
As noted in our own Dying Light 2 review, survival in the zombie game’s sequel feels considerably easier and less engaging than in the original. The world is simple and easy to navigate, the enemies seem weaker, and the game feels more about speed, levity, and pouring you more and more “content” rather than giving you a deadly zombie experience.
Some of these issues have been addressed through successive Techland updates, including melee combat, which now feels heavier and clunkier (in a good way). However, much of Dying Light 2’s 2022 patches have focused on new items and cosmetics rather than core gameplay issues.
2023, however, could be the year Techland turns things around. In April, a new Dying Light 2 update is scheduled to overhaul the game’s physics systems, and in June, new enemies and a “nighttime experience” are expected to arrive. We love a good comeback story, so hopefully Dying Light 2 can pick itself up.
Keep an eye out for the rest of the best upcoming games for 2023. Otherwise, get a load of all the new games available now for PC, or maybe try out some great survival games, if you like a brutal battle against the dead -living.