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H1Z1: KotK's concurrent playerbase grows 1000% since September, tops 110K con players

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Fantastic turn around for the game.

For the curious, it's listed as Owners: 4,424,791 ± 59,111 on SteamSpy.

The game is made by Daybreak, who you will best remember as Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) prior to Sony selling them off in 2015.

VentureBeat said:
King of the Kill had a strong early debut, but its audience quickly moved on to other games. The game's player numbers dropped to less than half before Daybreak launched a huge update in September. While this patch maintained the core gameplay, it introduced crucial improvements to the user interface and the in-game economy. King of the Kill's September update also wiped characters, introduced regional servers, and added native Twitch integration.

GitHyp analyst Paul Curtin explained that after months of struggling to break 10,000 concurrent players, H1Z1: King of the Kill started seeing huge growth after the update. This was due in large part to YouTube and Twitch creators embracing the competitive shooter. As of the time of this writing, H1Z1 was the No. 3 most-streamed game on Twitch ahead of megahits like Overwatch, Hearthstone, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

”And things just keep getting better and better for the King," Curtin wrote in a blog post. ”Over this past weekend, the game reached its highest numbers yet with an average of 72,816 players per hour. During its record-setting weekend, King of the Kill also broke 100k concurrent players for the first time ever with a new all-time high of 110,109 players in a single hour."
Click to expand...
Source: http://www.githyp.com/h1z1-king-of-the-kills-playerbase-has-risen-90-in-the-past-six-months/
Via: http://venturebeat.com/2017/03/14/h...ve-player-count-has-grown-90-since-september/

h1z1-playersvisxh.gif
 
K

Krosia

Member
The survival part is almost dead, which is funny because it was the original vision. THIS here was just an additional mode that they worked on with the modder Playerunknown who made the Battle Royale mod for Arma.

Kinda funny that this is their claim to fame now, but good for them.
 
P

ph1l0z0ph3r

Member
And now here comes Battlegrounds. Hopefully it gives Daybreak a kick in the ass to actually add more shit into kotk besides crates since Battlegrounds is an improvement in every way. Also would be good if they actually did something with the Just Survive side of the game.
 
J

JBwB

Member
It's a massive hit with youtubers and twitch streamers so I'm not surprised. I haven't played it myself but it's very fun to watch others do so.
 
B

BearPawB

Banned
I like watching people play the game on twitch, but would never think about buying it.

Game is a buggy POS, but certainly fun in a pseudo esports way
 
O

OldRoutes

Member
Can someone break down why this game is so popular for me? I've quickly looked online and I'm not sure why it's so popular...
 
D

Durante

Member
OldRoutes said:
Can someone break down why this game is so popular for me? I've quickly looked online and I'm not sure why it's so popular...
Click to expand...
I can't claim to have a full understanding, but as far as I can tell it's at least partly due to the same reason some "survival"-genre games get extremely popular while some don't: streamers.

Now, if I knew exactly what makes a game popular with streamers I wouldn't post it here but sell the knowledge to the EAs and Activisions of the world.
 
G

Gormenghast

Member
Yeah, very popular on Twitch, yeah it's a technical disaster.

It's like the old days of MMO where the quality was oscillating between crap game design and completely broken game.

Then comes WoW that does derivative okay design on top of a technically functioning game and it's BIGGEST GAME EVER.

So now we wait for a company that can produce something even sufficiently functional on top of okay design and that game will totally destroy the quasi-disaster that is H1Z1 and multiple clones.
 
B

BumperLips

Member
I would probably give this a go one day, but seeing some of the stuff on DrDisrespect's stream where shots sometimes don't register and other bullshit would make me real salty. Would be fun with a team though.

Part of it is probably how fast these are to get started. Once you have enough people you're instantly thrown in. And since it has so much popularity, they fill up real quick.

Wonder how PU's Battlegrounds will interact/affect this. Can Daybreak do anything to them? (Would much rather have Battlegrounds since it seems that he was the one who started the mod in the first place. Creating his own standalone version seems fine.)
 
A

Anno

Member
Good for them. Now please use this success to sell off EverQuest to someone who will give a damn about the franchise.
 
G

Gormenghast

Member
Durante said:
Now, if I knew exactly what makes a game popular with streamers I wouldn't post it here but sell the knowledge to the EAs and Activisions of the world.
Click to expand...

But it's very easy.

Low commitment, tension and variety of gameplay. You cannot do "story" well on Twitch because you need something that the public can catch immediately and that doesn't need a continuity of attention (same as why MOBA are successful for streamers, they are episodic and self contained).

These survival/shooters are popular because they are full of variables that make every match different. "Emergent" gameplay but still immediate and with low commitment.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
OldRoutes said:
Can someone break down why this game is so popular for me? I've quickly looked online and I'm not sure why it's so popular...
Click to expand...

Essentially it's a last man standing survival battle in a giant open area where you have to scavenge for equipment, supplies, health kits, armor, vehicles, and everything else in order to fight and survive.

There are also modes where you can have a bunch of small teams competing.

When you die, you die. Your goal is to be the last person/group surviving.

You can imagine how that might be a pretty unique and interesting experience compared to other multiplayer games.
 
P

ph1l0z0ph3r

Member
OldRoutes said:
Can someone break down why this game is so popular for me? I've quickly looked online and I'm not sure why it's so popular...
Click to expand...

It gets adrenaline pumping very easily. It puts you in alot of tense situations where you don't know if you'll make it. The rush that comes from parachuting in at the start of a match and hoping you can get a weapon before the guy next to you is unmatched. Surviving and traveling across the map and the battles you have to engage in to make it top 10 keeps your heart on edge.
 
O

OneUh8

Member
I love the game and play with my brother often. But man is it buggy as shit. Frustrating at times. But still fun lol.
 
Compsiox

Compsiox

Banned
God damn. I remember playing this and wondering if it was going to survive. They've made a lot of great progress with an extremely optimized renderer and a really detailed map.

This game saved the company. Planetside2 was basically empty.

Add more guns and vehicles and this game will be close to perfect.
 
L

Lima

Member
Gormenghast said:
Yes, I know that one. It might be less glitchy than H1Z1, it's still pretty bad technically.

Everyone I know thinks "stupidly titled game" is better than H1Z1, in fact I suspect that's why we're seeing this thread now. It's because H1Z1 team is aware the party is over.
Click to expand...

Yeah the game continues to grow and there is a 300k $ tournament soon. But hey party is over lol.
 
A

Abilidebob

Member
BumperLips said:
I would probably give this a go one day, but seeing some of the stuff on DrDisrespect's stream where shots sometimes don't register and other bullshit would make me real salty. Would be fun with a team though.

Part of it is probably how fast these are to get started. Once you have enough people you're instantly thrown in. And since it has so much popularity, they fill up real quick.

Wonder how PU's Battlegrounds will interact/affect this. Can Daybreak do anything to them? (Would much rather have Battlegrounds since it seems that he was the one who started the mod in the first place. Creating his own standalone version seems fine.)
Click to expand...

So H1Z1 is League of Legends and Battlegrounds is DOTA 2?
 
H

Hyun Sai

Member
Are these games any good on console or is there an opportunity to take for Pubs / Devs in the King of the Hill market ?
 
M

Magwik

Banned
Man I'm glad the game is doing good but I have no clue what the developers are up to. The game was supposed to leave Early Access in September, and hasn't had much improvement since.
 
G

Gormenghast

Member
Something instead I couldn't answer and that it would be interesting to discuss is why one game gets so much popular than another.

"Bandwagoning" is of course the big part of it, but what needs to be understood is how the bandwagoning triggers.

Battlegrounds thing isn't out yet, so we don't know how it goes. But for example why The Culling started so big and now decreased, whereas H1Z1 increased?

As far as I've seen The Culling was more competent technically and had a team working actively on it. Yet it went down.

Maybe just because it's not directly a shooter?
 
H

Hestisdabest

Member
OldRoutes said:
Can someone break down why this game is so popular for me? I've quickly looked online and I'm not sure why it's so popular...
Click to expand...

It's you vs 150-170 people. You have 1 life and if you die your done.No revives,re spawning of any kind..

+Best MP shooter out there,no other game like it....yet (I see you battle grounds)
+No other game gives you that rush of getting into a fight and barley surviving
+Winning is an even more rush. I've won a match with 3hp before,lol

-Super Buggy,They take forever to fix stuff (or don't fix stuff at all!)
-Poorly optimized
-Broken score system
-No rewards for winning except for an emote at end of season

Honestly,it's a game that at first that will make you curse alot,but once you get a little better and know what to do will have you saying just one more game...then it's 4am..

It also has duo's and 5's so you can play with friends making it even more intense when you get into a gun fight trying to all survive while taking enemy teams out

I hope with how popular its become they start fixing and optimizing the game alot better.this game is great but could be so much better with just a few easy tweaks.
 
H

Hestisdabest

Member
StaticJam said:
Man I'm glad the game is doing good but I have no clue what the developers are up to. The game was supposed to leave Early Access in September, and hasn't had much improvement since.
Click to expand...

Rolling around in all this new money the game and crates are making them..Definitely not fixing stuff,that's for sure! ::boots up h1z1 now to play a game with all this talk about it:::
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Helacious said:
Is it safe to assume H1Z1 is going to die / swept under the rug and all the focus on King of the Hill?
Click to expand...

It depends on if they feel there's potential in a better version of H1Z1 itself.

It might make sense to keep going on that given the brand's popularity.
 
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