Warner Bros.' platform brawler MultiVersus was well on its way to becoming one of this year's most popular fighting games. Thanks to its massive roster of some of the most iconic characters and figures from Warner Bros.' extensive back catalog, the game's open beta confirmed its burgeoning popularity by surpassing 10 million active players just weeks after its mid-summer debut.
Yet there are now signs that MultiVersus' decline may end up being as rapid as its phenomenal ascent. MultiVersus was an enormous success straight off the bat, reaching the coveted 10 million player milestone seemingly without breaking a sweat, and it showed promise in adding to its burgeoning player base as the game changed, expanded, and evolved. Yet recently, things have started to slide. According to SteamCharts, the game's average concurrent player count in July 2022 was 66,920, whereas the 30-day average as of the date of this article has fallen to a meager 23,661. Figuring out what precipitated such a quick decline may help Warner Bros. find ways to stanch the flow of a rather alarming tide.
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It's hard to identify one single reason for the decline of a game that was once boasting such extraordinary levels of popularity and acclaim. MultiVersus isn't dead in the water, but such a significant drop-off in active players is undeniably noteworthy, not to mention concerning, for the creatives at Player First and Warner Bros. Part of this downswing is likely to stem from the natural decrease that all popular properties inevitably face -- an unenviable process in a game's life cycle in which what goes up must, inevitably, come all the way back down.
Why the decline has kicked in so quickly and so emphatically is tougher to pin down. It's likely, for a start, that Warner Brothers' cartoonish brawler was partly relying on one-time or casual tourists to form the bulk of its player base, with many inevitably suckered in by the allure of seeing their favorite characters duking it out in comically mismatched matchups. As the novelty factor wears off for these curious part-timers, the game is inevitably left with its hardcore devotees more interested in mastering tricky characters rather than simply logging on and mashing buttons for twenty minutes. Whether MultiVersus has the depth and complexity to rival established, polished fighters such as Mortal Kombat or Tekken, however, remains to be seen.
It certainly isn't the case that MultVersus has allowed itself to go stagnant with regard to its roster. Morty Smith of Rick and Morty fame made his debut recently, with grandpa Rick soon to follow, whereas Gremlins' Gizmo should keep fans of the 1984 comedy-horror classic happy for a while, at least. The game does have more intrinsic problems, however. Bugs, glitches, and gameplay issues are still being worked out via various patches and upgrades, while some players have complained that MultiVersus simply doesn't have the depth and refinement of more seasoned and established beat 'em ups such as the superb Super Smash Bros. MultiVersus might be a great novelty party game, but is it a truly polished brawler ready to stand the test of time?
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Competition, of course, doesn't help. Once the novelty of MultiVersus wears off, many players will simply return to their old favorites or else seek out new releases in the shape of The Last of Us: Part I or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R, another fighting game to crowd an already overstuffed market. The recent debut of Rumbleverse, a free-to-play battle royale brawler courtesy of Epic Games and Iron Galaxy, will only contribute to poaching from MultiVersus' precarious player base. The current market is exceedingly fickle, and with so many games to choose from, many of them free-to-play, tying down an established core of fans is a constant challenge.
It will certainly be interesting to see what Warner Bros. and Player First do to rectify this massive decline in popularity. The obvious answer is to continue adding new characters, locations, and bonuses to incentivize players to return, but these are quick fixes vulnerable to the laws of diminishing returns. MultiVersus' problem may be that it relies too heavily on the casual market, meaning that all the shiny new characters and toys to play with won't be sufficient to ensure a committed, stable player base.
Fundamentally, Warner Bros. and Player First need to work on making MultiVersus into a coherent, well-balanced fighter that can hold onto long-term players, offering diversity, difficulty, and a decent learning curve in order to satisfy true fighting aficionados. Failure to do so could mean the game ends up fighting what will ultimately be a losing battle.