Highguard Boss Issues Statement on Game’s Player Count

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Wildlight Entertainment, the developer of Highguard, isn’t focused on how many people are playing the game, according to director Chad Grenier in a recent Polygon interview. He explained that player enjoyment is much more important to them than simply achieving a high player count – that’s how they’ll measure the game’s success.

The new online shooter, Highguard, got off to a bit of a rough beginning. It was surprisingly revealed at The Game Awards 2025 – a prime announcement slot usually saved for major developers like Capcom and Naughty Dog. It turns out Geoff Keighley offered that spot to Highguard‘s creators, Wildlight Entertainment, for free. While they initially planned a surprise release, they decided the exposure from the Game Awards was too good to pass up. After the announcement, Wildlight stopped communicating with the public, but the game launched on January 26th to a generally mixed response from players.

Highguard’s Director Says Player Count “Doesn’t Matter” As Much As Player Enjoyment

Recently, Polygon spoke with the developers of the game Highguard, including Chad Grenier, a co-founder of Wildlight Entertainment and the game’s director. Polygon highlighted that Wildlight’s main goal isn’t simply to attract a large number of players, but to create a game that players truly connect with and cherish. Here’s what Grenier said in full:

It doesn’t matter if only a few people or a huge number play the game. The most important thing is that those who do play it enjoy it.

Highguard’s Player Count Has Been Steadily Dropping Since Launch

Date Highguard 24-Hour Peak Player Count
January 26 97,249
January 27 39,832
January 28 19,294
January 29 12,748
January 30 11,517
January 31 15,147
February 1 13,119
February 2 ~10,000

The new game Highguard launched on Steam with almost 97,000 players on its first day, according to the website SteamDB. However, this number only reflects players on the PC version of the game through Steam, and doesn’t include those playing on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. Since launch, Highguard‘s player base has been shrinking. A significant drop occurred on January 27th, bringing the peak player count down to around 39,800 – a decrease of 59%. By January 30th, just over 11,500 players were at the peak, which represents an 88% decline from the game’s initial launch day.

Last weekend, the game Highguard saw a small increase in the number of players. On Saturday, January 31st, the game reached a 24-hour peak of 15,147 players. This happened after several updates were released, improving performance and making various tweaks. These updates also introduced a new experimental 5v5 game mode, designed to address player feedback that the game’s maps felt too big for the usual 3v3 matches. The developers announced on February 2nd that the 5v5 mode will now be a permanent part of Highguard.

I was so happy when Wildlight Entertainment added 5v5 to Highguard, and a lot of other fans seemed to love it too! But unfortunately, it looks like the player numbers are dropping again. February 2nd was the lowest we’ve seen, with only about 10,000 people playing at once on Steam. Now, as of February 3rd, there are just around 4,945 of us playing, which is a huge drop – almost 95% – from when the game first launched on January 26th. It’s a real shame to see!

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Despite an initially poor reception, Highguard has seen a noticeable improvement in reviews since its release last week. It originally launched with a ‘Mostly Negative’ rating on Steam, but now holds a ‘Mixed’ rating based on over 35,000 reviews, with more than 15,000 of those being positive.

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2026-02-03 21:08