Some failed online games die virtually overnight, while others linger on as shuffling zombies that refuse to quit moving. H1Z1 certainly isn’t the former, as variations of this battle royale have lasted long past its halcyon days under SOE’s guiding hand.
And just when it looked like Z1 Battle Royale — the current label for its PvP version — was on the outs, it bounced back over the holidays to resume its former stable population. According to Steam Charts, the title went from a peak of just 113 players last January to 1,365 by April. It stayed north of 1,000 for much of the year before crashing between October and November to 119. It’s remained this low until December 22nd, when the game bumped back up again to 1,108 with very little fluctuation. What’s going on with these numbers? It’s hard to say — a streamer bump is one possible explanation — but it smells funny that a dying game would abruptly jump up this high overnight.
Z1 Battle Royale hasn’t made a peep on Twitter since April 2021, but EG7 did make some noise about wanting to do something with this franchise in last August’s financial report.
