To say that Payday 3, Starbreeze’s long-awaited follow-up in the heist shooter series, had problems would be an understatement. Matchmaking issues, lackluster solo play that’s always online, the list goes on (check out our review for more details). Nevertheless, it has proven popular. The publisher announced 3,167,938 unique players for September 2023.
It’s especially noteworthy since Payday 3 early access began on September 18th. Furthermore, despite launch issues, the past five days have seen a peak concurrent player count of 124,254. Starbreeze Nebula also has 4,538,702 registered users across all titles.
Tobias Sjögren, CEO of Starbreeze Entertainment, stated, “First and foremost, I would like to thank our players for the patience they have shown us. Our community is the engine that drives both our games and our company forward. I don’t really need to repeat that this was not the start we wanted, but at the same time, our business model is a marathon and not a sprint, and we will tirelessly continue to build Payday 3 bigger and better to deliver the greatest possible value for our players.”
As for the future, the first update launches in early October and offers over 200 quality-of-life improvements on all platforms. The remainder of October and November sees more QoL improvements going live with new content and functionality. Finally, the first paid DLC, Syntax Error, goes live in December. Stay tuned for more details in the coming days.
