DBD has lost 27% of players and it's falling.
Before I get into the downward trend, and the reasons for it from my experience of talking to other players. I will post the chart that shows what I'm talking about.
You can clearly see a 27% loss of players over the course of the last 2 months. This coincides with the release of Legion. But it's not the Legions fault, per say.
That release also saw a change to the games engine. This change not only broke the sound engine at the time, but introduced a bug that is still destroying games to this day. Yes, I'm talking about the frozen load screen.
No one likes 3 survivor games. Killers don't, and survivors certainly do not. It's boring. Even twitch viewership is down, because those kinda games are boring to watch. But there's about a 1 in 4 chance that you will be playing one any time you load into a game of DBD.
But this isn't the whole problem. Another part of this problem is Legion. Not the killer itself, but the atmosphere around them. It is currently completely acceptable to d/c against them. People have seen their favorite streamers do it, been in games where it's happened enough, or whatever reasoning they have, and they start doing it themselves. It's a plague, and not that cool new killer.
And since these d/c's happen so often, they are carrying over to other killers. People are just d/cing against killers they don't like. This means that even if you load into a 4 survivor game, it's not guaranteed you will have one. All it takes is for one person to go "oh, screw playing against Hag." and bam, it's a boring game.
This problem is killing the game. To the point that just patching the frozen loading screen probably wont fix the problem completely, as it has created a zeitgeist of d/cing against killers you don't deem 'fun.' I honestly don't know what BHVR should do, but it is clear that something needs to be done. Sure there are periods of loss on the charts. But the playerbase has dropped to where it was a year ago, and is dwindling for longer periods then when DS was released.
Edit: This is not me doomsaying. This is me bringing attention to the fact that there is a serious problem. I love this game, and want it to self-right. And so, i will now link the treads I have made with real solutions to the problems.
This is my petiton to hold Fog Whisperers to a higher standard:
Ideas for fixing the d/c meta:
And a game adjustment i've playested in KYF:
Comments
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It isn’t a secret people started quitting because of legion and infinite loading screens, but when I had the audacity to mention a legion rework the forum users weren’t happy per say. It needs to happen simply because legion is bad for business. (I actually like facing legion)
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If you look at that history March-May were also slow last year as well. Even slower than now by a few thousand average.
I don't see reason to worry just yet. Those numbers will spike once a dlc releases then once again in the summer for 3rd birthday/new chapter/servers etc.
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No surprise, last time I played only 3 out of 10 matches were without DC
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i bet the match making has had a affect on those numbers too
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I mean that’s what happens with a bad chapter and no new content apart from cosmetics since December.
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I can live with Legion and the frozen loading screen but devs need to punish DCs way harder. Im talking about allowing 3 DCs each month, which still feels like too much, and once you pass those 3 DCs you get banned for 1 week.
I get that you have limited time to play and you dont want to face certain killers but those other 4 people inside that match feel just like you do so I think it's pretty fair to punish those people who dont care about the fun of other people playing.
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I've played 11.7 hours in the past 2 weeks, and it feels like a lot.
People will come back as they always do for the new DLC, but then it'll fall again.
Legion was pretty much the nail in the coffin for me. Maybe one day he won't make the experience so unpleasant, until then I doubt I'll grind the game as I used to.
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People quit because of a killer they cant bully without gen rushing.
But players werent quitting all the years of cyber bullying against killers, but as soon one survivor is being harmed and not granted their undeserved survive, the players riot.
What an amazing agenda the DBD community has built up, congrats.
Legion ist not overpowered, he is not fun to play against, just like freddy, but he is not strong, not at all.
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They keep buffing and buffing killers, without nerfing the OP things on the killer side. This makes it a little tedious for solo players.
Meanwhile swf with a full kit of instaheals and good toolboxes etc etc tbagging at every pallet still make things unfun on the killer side.
I'm getting tired myself to be honest.
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@The_Crusader I think a big problem is that they nerf and buff both sides every patch and they work on perks and maps more than the important things.
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I can say DCs are a big negative for the game. I was introducing my friend to the game last night and 9/10 games were ruined by DCs.
They had a lot of fun with the 1 game they actually got to play, but going through the 9 DC matches to get there was not worth it. They said they may look into the game later when things are better.
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It's nothing out of the ordinary. If you look at the trends over the past year or two you'll notice a very similar trend. Player counts increase around new content releases and events and decrease afterwards. Adding to this, in January there was a free weekend, which radically increases player counts. Right now we're just in the slump between content releases, coming off of a free weekend, that's why the drop seems more drastic. You should see it go right back up once the new chapter launches.
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^This. Free weekends and new content DLCs are like gamer Viagra.
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Bad matchmaking and dc is the real problem of this game. Nobody wants to wait +10 min. for play, and infinite loadscreen not help to much.
But bhvr have a lot of new cosmetics, right?
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Maybe a big amount of players got banned cuz DCing and toxic stuff which affected that decrease too, wouldn't surprise me.
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Do you want designers fixing programming bugs? I sure as hell don't.
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Id like to a timeout system for D/Cs like most online games have(example Gears4), Hopefully with dedicated servers they will be able to add it.
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^^
I really don’t either
(edit to clarify I was agreeing with what Orion said about the design team)
Post edited by GrootDude on0 -
The average player count rises and falls, right now it's at a low point but with the new DLC it'll most likely rise again. That said, I did expect to see a growth in average players over the past year but it seems to be about the same give or take for the past 10 months.
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There was a massive content draught in that time period, the largest the game has ever had. Almost five months for a new chapter.
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@SmokePotion Legion may have a very small roll, but you failed to look at all of the time frames. Back in September, there was a HUGE growth spirt, which I believe is when there was a sale on PC. Since then, there has been a steady decline to where you are now, which means this can’t solely be attributed to Legion.
Look at the 1 year, and all time trends, and you’ll see a fairly flat line, which means that the PC is neither gaining, nor losing. However, the curve at the very end, these past 2 to 3 weeks, is different from everything else. Legion was released over 3 months ago, so it is something else that is causing the current PC down trend.
My guess would be several factors, the end game, those waiting for the new DLC, the new matchmaking system, and people thinking that dedicated servers are going to be a magic pill (they won’t be, BTW). If the new ranking system is powerful enough to give ranks meaning, it could be enough to bring some players back. We’ll have to wait and see what happenes over the next few weeks.
**This is only for PC, consoles are completely seperate.**
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Dead by Daylight will probably decline over time, like most multi-player games, but I think a dedicated following will stick around or regularly return for years. And with big changes like 60 FPS, Switch, and dedicated servers I don't think we have to worry.
If it went totally free to play and relied on cosmetic and chapter purchases I think it would see a nice bump. (Yeah I know it's a cheap game already but younger players without a job might be deterred by any price)
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Actually, for the first year that the game launched, the peaks were always about 20k players. They've been increasing over time.
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The game is fine with a price tag. Otherwise, bans would be kinda useless, since you could just open up a new account.
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The game is 60% off on PS4 and DLCs are 50% off, pretty neat before the new chapter.
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I guess but they'd have to start from scratch every time, losing any cosmetics, character progression, content, etc. And there isn't a way to ban IP addresses?
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IP addresses can be changed in seconds.
They have to start from scratch now. It hasn't stopped them from trying.
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@Orion I ignored the first 3 months, as it was obvious from the numbers that there were serious issues. If you look at the trend line of all time, excluding those 3 months, you’ll see an extremely small increase over time, but that increase is smaller than any margin of error, so again, it should be ignored.
Ups and downs are common in all businesses, and DbD is no different. Only when the trend line chnages dramtically, and for no apparent reason, is there cause for concern, or joy. Since the PC sales is less than 10% of all DbD sales, the Steam numbers don’t actually mean all that much.
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IP bans aren't very effective because most people have dynamic IPs, and in some cases you'd have to specifically pay extra to get a static IP. If your dynamic IP address gets IP banned, not only would it stop working once your IP changes but worse yet an innocent person would get banned if they wind up with that address later on.
We do have measures to prevent it, though, but you would still likely see an increase in cheaters regardless. Though I don't really see the need to make the game free at this point. The playerbase is still in good shape and the price is low as is.
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A constant increase, however small, shouldn't be ignored. You might argue that it's within the acceptable margin of error, but it's constant. At some point, it goes beyond "margin of error" and enters "measurable increase".
How do you know that PC sales represent less than 10% of all DbD sales? Did the devs give out that information?
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@Delfador No platform is more important than another. Do you think that because PC was released first?
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I think he meant in the sense of player population.
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This post isn't that accurate.
Each spring, around this time there's been a dip. So that isn't a big deal. Also what the OP fails to mention is that the last 3 days have had increases in player peaks consecutively. That isn't as juicy of a comment I guess?
It's easier to drag something down that to state the entire facts I guess? With the new chapter coming tomorrow presumably... this is why. Today has been a slight downturn because it's Monday of course.
Overall. There's no worry about this game yet...
I would love to see Ranked Rewards, Devotion Rewards and in game collectibles to give the game depth... and stats too...
Still waiting. I think things are just fine. As long as they never dip below 10,000 players on PC, everything is fine. I wish I knew the numbers for consoles.
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Then that's very likely PS4 since millions of people got it for free last year on PS+ and you need PS+ to play online games like DbD anyway.
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PC has millions of owners as well. Doesn't mean they all play the game.
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There's always drop off before new content as player expect to be spending more time after release unlocking everything. The last chapter wasnt as well liked by some and that can factor in since there is no reason to grind if your not interested in the content.
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The devs acknowledge the reception of legion, but that shouldn’t cause far too many issues in terms of numbers. The number you listed, 27%, while drastic, is only temporary— the release of new content tends to keep players well, playing. I’d anticipate a surge of players on the release of DOTF (Demise of the faithful), and then within a month or two, those numbers may falter, and slightly drop— but one thing is certain, due to trends of the release of each chapter (every three months, or seasonally according to the roadmap), with the edition of outfits, events, which will all cause an increase in numbers in players— take the Lunar New Year Event. With the constant push for updates, and constant feedback (one of the uses of the PTB Survey, and also the forums itself), the feedback should be relatively immediate.
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They already destroyed Freddy, because of the "high DC rate against him" and nerfed an already weak killer.
And now survivor mains go on after they realized that they can force reactions that way.
Any killer deemed "unfun" by the survivor (because he is strong or need them to adapt) they DC. Nurse, Hag, Freddy, Legion, Doc.
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Undoubtedly, because of genrushing.
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Also let's not forget the game was free in the last 6 months, so theres probably been a steady dropoff of people quitting that are/were f2p.
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I completely get you, we need devs to punish DCers much harder and faster.
Also this is completely normal player decline for DBD, it's been like this since release that player counts are rather low before new DLCs drop or before new events. I wouldn't worry about it.
Soon™ all those problems you mentioned will be resolved.
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If someone quit for a while it doesn't mean they will never play again. I had breaks from the game and I am sure others do as well. I doubt this game will ever die. It is one of a kind and that will keep it going.
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Several reasons have caused my friends and family to quit.
1. Constant 3v1
2. Legion game play. His mechanics make for a torturously boring game.
3. Increase in toxic killers. Easily 2/3 of the matches are jardcore camps or tunnels. Most people are not SWF hit squads, they just want to have fun. Hard to do that when at least one person per match is getting screwed over.
4. Every new killer/perk seems to exacerbate issues even more
5. And a big one, poorly thought out and executed events.
6. BP grind as survivor (I play killer primarily due to this and toxicity)
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@not_Queen better work on these or you'll see more player loss
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I would normally agree, but the evidence I'm seeing is telling a different story. I listed several things above, but you can add this horrible matching system to the list.
I personally know at least 20 people that have quit in the past few months, not including my 4 family members that I have to all but beg to play now and then. All of these people loved playing this game and were definitely casual players. They died non-stop but always had fun. Now, they want nothing to do with the game. They are not just taking breaks, they have uninstalled and moved on.
How many more have to do so before BHVR recognizes their game needs help. Not another broken killer or broken perks. Freddy needs his rework, throw Legion in there too. Match making is FUBAR and needs fixing now. Etc, etc.
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I can only speak for myself, but I've just been very frustrated lately by the glaring problems that continue to go unaddressed.
Why are perks still randomized in the bloodweb? Why should I have to spend 10 million bloodpoints just to get a single perk that I want on a single killer? This system was fine when there were fewer perks, but how has this not been addressed when it is such an obvious QoL improvement? How is this good for the state of the game? Do they think people just stop playing when they get the perks they want? Are we secretly paying to play by the minute?
Why should I spend money on a new killer when I know that if the killer is broken they simply won't be fixed a la Freddy? That's just really scummy to me. When the community and devs both acknowledge a killer isn't working and people have already spent money on that product, you prioritize it and fix it. That's just simple customer service to me. I don't think that's entitlement. I don't take people's money, attempt to repair a car, fail, and then say I'll get to it in 2 years.
The d/c's are annoying, but I think those are just a symptom of many people not having fun with the game a lot of the time. SWF breaks the game at a fundamental level, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of solution forthcoming aside from tricking killers into playing against them with the new matchmaking. Many killers' viability at higher rank rests solely on how good the Ruin spawn point is. How long have we been talking about this? Just...do something.
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If you look closely, you'll see that the game sees a peak around September, then it drops around February/March and then it grows back. The current drop doesn't seem out of the ordinary.
Still, I think they should do something more concrete about the DC epidemic. Personally it destroys my enjoyment both as killer and survivor, and I guess a lot of people share this feeling. A simple deserter penalty/timeout would do a lot imo.
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