Marvel's Avengers, from Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics, has proven to be a disappointment to its corporate parents and players alike. With gameplay that fluctuates between fun and grindy and a disappointing live service endgame, Marvel's Avengers mostly leaves players wondering what other superhero games they could play.
As such, the live service model that Marvel's Avengers launched with has proved to be a detriment rather than a strength, as there are fewer players to serve. Players are leaving the game in droves, with lower concurrent and peak counts each month. Nowhere is this clearer than on PC, where Steam tells a clear story with some surprising twists.
One Reddit user caught an incredible moment on Steamcharts where the player base for Marvel's Avengers on Steam dropped to zero. However, it is not clear whether or not this represented a moment of zero players, or if it was just a glitch in the data. If it is a glitch though, it is not a unique one for Marvel's Avengers' Steam Chart, as there are two other instances over the past month where the player count dropped to zero. If that's not an incentive for the developers to fix the problems with Marvel's Avengers, nothing will be.
While the zero players moments are outliers from the overall Steam Chart, the trend in player count is decidedly downwards. After a monumental decline after the first month of release, Marvel's Avengers has been steadily bleeding players on PC with only a couple of reversals. A small one occurred during December, which can probably be attributed to Christmas, and another in March thanks to the Hawkeye DLC. However, the downward trend continued afterward, so whatever expectations players have of the Black Panther DLC, it probably won't save the game.
Despite an updated roadmap released for Marvel's Avengers, the future of the game does not look bright. Many issues that players have complained about remain in place, and the Avengers game that most players wanted, with a strong single-player story and finely tuned levels, remains a dream.
If there's a moment for Marvel's Avengers to win back fans, it may have already passed, or it may be coming far too late. One of the more vocal complaints recently was players denouncing a Hawkeye skin, and when neither the skins nor the gameplay hold appeal for players, it's likely the player count will continue to drop.
Marvel’s Avengers is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.