Rainbow Six Siege 12 months 7 appeared to have all the things going for it, with a promising roadmap in addition to a doubtlessly game-changing operator: Azami. However evaluating the statistics of this yr to earlier years, 12 months 7 has been a failure for Ubisoft up till now. Because the longest-running multiplayer recreation from Ubisoft, Rainbow Six Siege skilled vital development in its participant base from launch up till 12 months 5. However issues took a flip for the more serious from 12 months 6 with a major drop within the variety of common gamers on PC. In 12 months 7, the hunch appears to be like set to proceed.
Earlier than entering into the small print, I ought to make it clear that each one the info right here relies on the Steam model of Rainbow Six Siege.
Due to the info supplied by Steam Charts, we’ve an excellent overview of the typical concurrent gamers in Rainbow Six Siege. From its launch till 12 months 3, Rainbow Six Siege managed to rise up to 83,000 common concurrent gamers over time. The start of 12 months 4 wasn’t profitable sufficient as the sport misplaced gamers all through 12 months 3, and it was clocking a median of over 69,000 concurrent gamers in March 2019.
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12 months 5 marked an enormous resurgence for Siege. In March 2020 when its first Season launched, Rainbow Six Siege reached nearly 120,000 common concurrent gamers, which is an all-time excessive for the sport. Even the height quantity for concurrent gamers noticed a brand new top with over 198,000 gamers.
After that, the sport began to slowly lose gamers, returning to a median of 85,000 concurrent gamers in March 2021 with the launch of 12 months 6. The downward slope continued to empty the variety of lively gamers in Siege till the sport set a median variety of over 46,000 concurrent gamers by the start of 12 months 7.
Because the starting of 12 months 7, the sport has slowly misplaced gamers, and the typical variety of concurrent gamers for the final month is sitting round 38,000 – the bottom quantity since October 2017. That is already a vital signal for Ubisoft as Rainbow Six Siege has been frequently dropping gamers for an excellent two years now.
Why the Stoop?
Firstly, Ubisoft must hearken to the neighborhood. Presently, the sport is split into two sections: informal gamers who’d wish to get again to the outdated Siege with slower, extra lifelike gameplay, and professional gamers preferring the latest modifications and would love the sport to grow to be extra fast-paced than earlier than.
Ubisoft has been largely listening to professional gamers in the previous few years, making modifications that flip Rainbow Six Siege into an esports-friendly expertise. However wanting on the outcomes, these selections have compelled many informal gamers to depart the sport since 12 months 5.
A few of these modifications embody harsh nerfs for Ash, Zofia, and Blackbeard. Rising the recoil of R4C and M762 to a excessive diploma nearly eliminated these Ash and Zofia from the consolation zone of many informal gamers. Additionally, the nerfs utilized to Blackbeard turned the operator’s principal gadget into an nearly ineffective and fragile utility, disappointing the Blackbeard mains.
Aside from that, Ubisoft eliminated some lifelike features of the sport over time, which once more, triggered disappointment for the informal neighborhood. Adjustments such because the disappearance of useless our bodies, elimination of explosion haze, and even ignoring the background of some operators in stability modifications could possibly be small however efficient causes for informal gamers to spend much less time on Rainbow Six Siege. For example, Ubisoft determined to take away Stand up to, a passive capacity for Zofia, to make the sport an easier expertise for newcomers with fewer secrets and techniques. The builders had been decided to take away Smoke’s immunity to Gasoline Grenades as effectively, however the large backlash from the neighborhood stopped them.
Final however not least, Ubisoft’s refusal to deliver some old-Siege options to the informal playlist comparable to Evening Mode maps was one other bummer for the non-competitive gamers.
In 12 months 5, the sport acquired neither new maps nor new weapons, however the first two seasons introduced among the best Operators within the historical past of Siege. Iana, Oryx, Ace, and Melusi are all high operators with a excessive choose price each in informal and aggressive matches.
The rationale for such nice reception from followers in 12 months 5 was the truth that the brand new operators crammed vital gaps within the tactical plans of gamers. All operators within the first half of 12 months 5 felt fluid and nearly flawless, so it’s in all probability secure to say that the Siege neighborhood is happier to obtain higher operators relatively than new content material.
In different phrases, the primary half of 12 months 5 in Rainbow Six Siege was a win-win period for each informal and professional gamers when it got here to the brand new operators.
Aside from listening to the informal neighborhood, Ubisoft additionally wants a stable option to counter cheaters. Presently, cheaters are actively ruining the expertise within the high ranges of the Ranked mode. Regardless of Ubisoft’s efforts to run a two-step verification gate for Rainbow Six Siege, there are nonetheless sufficient cheaters to make anybody deeply fed up with enjoying Ranked.
One different cause that has in all probability made Rainbow Six Siege much less widespread is the launch of Valorant – a recreation that mixes CSGO-style gunplay with Rainbow Six Siege’s hero-shooter idea, and it’s fairly profitable. Whereas we don’t have actual numbers, the concurrent participant counts on Riot’s shooter look like over half 1,000,000 a day, which is large. Additionally, we’ve noticed some well-known Rainbow Six Siege professional gamers streaming and liking the method of Valorant in latest months.
Such a major lower within the variety of gamers may have penalties for the way forward for the sport, and Ubisoft must make a vital determination: both make the sport free-to-play or begin wanting right into a sequel and a contemporary begin.
What’s Subsequent for Siege?
In an AMA session on Reddit final yr, Ubisoft Montreal confirmed that so long as they didn’t really feel like they wanted to develop a brand new recreation, there wouldn’t be a Rainbow Six Siege 2.
However regardless of saying that 12 months 7 could be essentially the most formidable yr of the sport to date, Ubisoft has failed to draw new gamers to the sport. This may pressure the builders to think about a fair greater change for Rainbow Six Siege – sufficiently big, maybe, to warrant making a sequel?
Nonetheless, if Ubisoft nonetheless insists on securing the present recreation and increasing it with seasonal updates, then we are going to quickly attain some extent the place the French writer could have to think about making Rainbow Six Siege a free-to-play recreation to extend the variety of lively gamers.
Both method, Rainbow Six Siege shouldn’t be in nice form, and the neighborhood ought to in all probability put together for an enormous change forward. In fact, the sport shouldn’t be dying, but when the variety of lively gamers continues to lower on the present price, the sport may actually wrestle over the subsequent two or three years.
