Player numbers matter. If no one is playing your game, players aren’t going to start playing just to play on empty servers. As a result, Evolve‘s player numbers on Steam are fascinating to watch. The game went into free-to-play mode on July 7th last week, and its player population has gone from an average of 106 players to an average of 3,391 players, an increase of more than 3,000 percent. That’s a pretty significant uptick.
It’s important to note that this does not make the game one of the biggest success stories of all time, nor does it mean that the game is necessarily bringing in more money, but it does mean that there are a much larger number of people with the potential to drop some cash on the game. Only time will tell if that’s enough to turn the game’s fortunes around. But it does provide an interesting insight into how significant a jump really can come from a game going free-to-play, which is useful whether or not you’re interested in team-based monster hunting.
