MultiVersus was a huge hit on Steam upon release in 2022

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Over 150,000 players gambled on the release of the Free2Play fighting game MultiVersus. Popular DC and Warner characters bang their bells for victory here. Half a year later, hardly anyone plays anymore. What happened?

What kind of game is this? In MultiVersus you play as popular comic and cartoon heroes like Harley Quinn, Batman, Jake & Finn or Tom & Jerry in arenas against other players. The gameplay is like Super Smash Bros.: You beat your opponents and try to throw them off the stage.

The Free2Play approach and above all the possibility of being able to play such a fighting game on the PC with crossplay have made MutliVersus the best fighting game in a long time.

The beta release on July 26th also went exceptionally well. Tens of thousands have been attracted to Steam alone, along with other players on PlayStation and Xbox. Sony even included MultiVersus in the top 10 most popular Free2Play games of 2022. However, the current status is much bleaker.

Here’s how MultiVersus is doing right now: As the statistics website steamcharts reveals, as of February 16, 2023, MultiVersus has lost the vast majority of its players:

  • from 153,044 peak players in July 2022 to 1,524 in the last 30 days (-99%)
  • from 66,920 players on average in July 2022 to 824 in the last 30 days (-98%)
  • ratings have fallen from 93% at release to 63% recently

    • So after only 7 months almost all players on Steam are gone. We cannot make any statements about the data on PlayStation and Xbox.

    Here’s the gameplay trailer for MultiVersus:

    MultiVersus – Gameplay trailer for the new fighting game

    More videos

    Postponed season, missing content

    Why are the players leaving? MultiVersus was struggling with severe balance issues at release. Characters like Bugs Bunny absolutely dominated and spoiled the fun for some players.

    However, what has been criticized more often in reviews and on social media lately is the content of recent times – or rather the lack of it, as discussed on reddit:

  • Season 1 brought 5 new characters: Rick, Morty, Gizmo, Stripe and Black Adam
  • In Season 2, which has been running since November 2022, only Marvin the Martian has appeared so far
  • Season 3, which should have started already, has been postponed to the end of March

    • There is also criticism of the shop. It mainly contains cosmetics, but these can be quite expensive at around €15. According to reviews, the biggest problem is still balancing.

    With over 1,000 players, MultiVersus isn’t quite dead on Steam alone, with more consoles likely to join. However, if the trend continues down, things look bleak.

    If you’re still looking for something to play with, there’s an excellent deal right now:

    25 games on Steam that used to cost €440 are now available for €25 – most of them also run on Steam Deck

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