Halo Infinite sees an uptick in players Steam

Since its 2021 release, Halo Infinite has had trouble getting going. The once-popular first-person shooter appears to be slowly recovering, though.

There has been a recent uptick in player count for Halo Infinite.

Microsoft’s main live streaming game has a difficult time retaining player interest, according to 343 Industries. The game’s player base shrank to a few thousand devoted players as a result of a string of delayed and abandoned new releases.

However, things are improving as the multiplayer shooter has experienced a rise in player counts for the first time since Season 4’s debut. In response to a tweet from HaloHub, the game experienced growth yesterday for the first time since the introduction of the most recent season in June 2023.

Halo Infinite has seen its first recent uptick in players on Steam since the last season launch! pic.twitter.com/IFa5GNjBwT

HaloHub (@HaloHubGG) August 21, 2023

For other games like Call of Duty, Overwatch 2, or Apex Legends, 7,000 concurrent players might not seem like much, but for Halo Infinite, it’s a big deal. In the past 30 days on Steam, the game averaged just 3,406 players.

The Halo API tracker claims that there are 26,000 players overall across all platforms, per the PC Gaming subreddit. The game might not be able to maintain such statistics, though, because Starfield will have early access at the end of the following week.

Microsoft has offered 343 Industries and the Halo Infinite team their full backing. The studio was impacted by Microsoft’s employee layoffs earlier this year. Since the release of Halo Infinite, the company has seen a number of high-profile exits. Studio head Bonnie Ross, director of multiplayer Tom French, director of engineering David Berger, and director of creative Joseph Staten all left the firm in September 2022.

Matt Booty, the head of Microsoft’s game studios, recently stated that 343 Industries would continue to be the main Halo development company. Activision Blizzard might still be involved, according to Booty, who did not rule out other outside developers.

“If something like that were to happen, it would have to come from the studios,” Booty said. It’s improbable that we would enter the situation and impose our will.

The fourth season of Halo Infinite brought a ton of new content to the online first-person shooter, including the return of the Infection PvP mode and the addition of two new levels and four new weapons. A 100-tier battle pass and changes to game balance are also included in the most recent season.

Hopefully Halo Infinite experiences a comeback like Battlefield 2042 did. But for it to happen, 343 Industries needs to update more frequently and include more worthwhile content. In a few months, Ubisoft’s XDefiant will join the already crowded field of online first-person shooters.