It's a troubling week for No Man's Sky as statistics are revealed, indicating that 90% of the game's playerbase have dropped off after less than 2 weeks.

No Man's Sky was without a doubt, one of the most anticipated games of this year. After many months of delay, the spcae-exploration title finally released earlier this month - and things are not going well.

Although No Man's Sky delivered on its promise of 18 quintillion explorable planets, it seems that a lack of a real story as well as variation in core gameplay has put off a lot of gamers, as the amount of active players has fallen dramatically after less than 2 weeks.

According to the above statistics, posted by /u/Skoonk on reddit earlier today, No Man's Sky has fallen from 157,000 concurrent players to just over 10,000 in the 10 days since release. While players are unlikely to stick around forever, regardless of the game they're playing, we certainly expected a lot longer lifespan from a game that appeared ready to deliver so much.

This new statistic isn't particularly surprising, given that the title's sales dropped 81% as it entered its second week on the market. Of course this could be put down to the players that actually wanted the game having bought it in the first week, but it's certainly not a promising sign at the very least.

One possible explanation for the game's lack of active players might come from the abundance of crashes on the game's less-than-stable PC port, something that is also present on the console version to a lesser extent. No Man's Sky's stability issues have led to many gamers asking Sony to refund their purchases, creating a somewhat negative atmosphere surrounding the title in the gaming community.

The misinformation allegedly spread by Hello Games is also a cause of much upset to those who eagerly awaited the release of No Man's Sky. Not only does the gameplay differ from that shown in early trailers, many fans have interpreted a recent statement from founder Sean Murray as suggesting that the game will be getting paid DLC in the future, something that was initially promised never to happen.

Of course it's still early days for No Man's Sky, and perhaps in the future, new features will be added that provide a little more variety to the game - but for now, a lack of player interest might be justified. PC players that have managed to get the game working at a decent frame rate have access to the title's modding community as they begin to release the first No Man's Sky mods.

No Man's Sky is available now for PlayStation 4 and PC.