It launched strong on Steam as a promising shooter-as-a-service, but six months later, The First Descendant has lost 90% of its player base. In January, Nexon’s game hit a record low of 7,509 concurrent users.

Last summer was dominated by the success of Black Myth: Wukong, but the season also saw the launch of two very different free-to-play games: Once Human and The First Descendant. Both titles have since experienced steep player drop-offs, with Nexon’s looter shooter, aiming to “challenge Destiny 2,” suffering the most significant losses as over 90% of its players have abandoned it.

According to SteamDB, The First Descendant debuted with an impressive peak of 264,860 concurrent players but now averages only around 12,000 weekly users. Although the December release of Void Chaser briefly reignited interest—boosting the average to over 20,000—the game plunged to a new low of 7,220 concurrent users this January.

Once Human Stays Relatively Steady

In comparison, Once Human, another free-to-play shooter released around the same time, has seen a much slower decline. While its launch peak of 231,668 players has dwindled, the game has consistently maintained a weekly average of over 50,000 concurrent players since November. This January, it hit a low of 22,727 users, but that still far outpaces The First Descendant. The game’s focus on open-world survival, PvP, PvE, and base-building seems to have fostered greater community loyalty than The First Descendant‘s story- and quest-driven gameplay.

Why Is The First Descendant Struggling?

The steep decline of The First Descendant highlights the difficulty of sustaining interest in games-as-a-service, especially when the content fails to meet expectations. Meanwhile, the relative stability of Once Human proves that dynamic and engaging updates can help maintain a loyal player base in this competitive genre.

With its player count dwindling just six months after release, Nexon still has an opportunity to turn things around. If the company delivers regular, compelling updates throughout 2025, it could reignite interest in The First Descendant. For now, Nexon faces an uphill battle to keep its game relevant in the crowded games-as-a-service market.

Source: 3djuegos