Okay, so I just saw the latest financial report, and it’s not looking great for Payday 3. It’s still not as popular as Payday 2, which is a little worrying! It seems like Starbreeze Studios has some work to do to get Payday 3 where it needs to be, and these numbers definitely suggest they’re aware of that.
Payday 3 was released in 2023, but its launch hasn’t gone as planned. The game currently has a ‘Mixed’ rating on Steam, and recently peaked at only 384 players in a 24-hour period. While it initially reached almost 78,000 players at launch in September 2023, that number dropped sharply to around 5,000 by November, and hasn’t improved since.
Starbreeze Studios Reveals Its Financials
Starbreeze’s recent investor report detailed the company’s financial performance throughout the year and in the final quarter. While Payday 3 generated more revenue overall in 2025 (76.5 million SEK, or $8.4 million USD) compared to Payday 2 (50.1 million SEK, or $5.6 million USD), Payday 2 actually outperformed Payday 3 in the last quarter of the year, earning 14.8 million SEK ($1.6 million USD) versus $880,000 USD. Looking at year-over-year growth, Payday 2 increased its earnings from $4.6 million USD in 2024 to $5.6 million USD in 2025. Payday 3, however, saw a decrease in revenue, falling from $9.1 million USD in 2024 to $8.4 million USD in 2025.
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Recent changes are concerning, especially as Starbreeze plans to fully own the publishing rights for Payday 3 by mid-2025. They aimed to speed up new content, and the game has already seen significant updates like the Party Powder heist in May and the Skills 2.0 update in December. Launching the game on PS Plus earlier in the year also brought in new players. While Starbreeze’s sales increased in 2025 to 221 million SEK ($24.3 million USD) – up from 186 million SEK ($20.4 million USD) in 2024 – their losses also grew, reaching 402.7 million SEK ($44.3 million USD) in 2025 compared to 317.7 million SEK ($34.9 million USD) the previous year.
People who enjoy the Payday games and follow Starbreeze Studios likely know the company has been facing some challenges. Recently, Starbreeze canceled their Dungeons & Dragons game – known as Project Baxter – which they first announced in 2023. This cancellation was followed by staff layoffs, and further reductions in staff occurred in early 2026.
Although anything can happen, it’s evident that players currently prefer Payday 2 over Payday 3. Recent financial reports and data from SteamDB show Payday 2 still attracts tens of thousands of players daily. Even though it’s a 13-year-old game and player numbers have decreased from a peak of almost 250,000 eight years ago, reaching over 25,000 concurrent players in a day is still impressive. Payday 3, despite Starbreeze’s work on it, hasn’t yet matched the average player counts of its predecessor. However, Starbreeze reports they are making good progress in improving Payday 3 and understand that rebuilding player trust will take time.
Late in 2025, Starbreeze teamed up with Sidetrack Games to continue supporting Payday 2 on PC with updates and improvements. They recently asked players for feedback in a February survey, which will likely influence the future direction of the Payday series. While it remains to be seen if Payday 3 will surpass the original, Payday 2 has clearly demonstrated its long-term appeal.
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2026-02-20 07:34