Paladins Future Uncertain After Recent Game Closures and Record Low Player Count
Image Credit: Hi-Rez Studios, Paladins Main Image
Paladins, the free-to-play hero shooter, has been on a downward spiral for quite some time now, with its player base hitting an all-time low in October of 2024. There are many reasons for this decline, many of which have been echoed by its very own players and community online. Now, more than ever, have the right to be concerned about the future of the game with the recent announcements of Hi-Rez shutting down Realm Royale and Divine Knockout in the near future.
Right off the bat, one of the most significant problems facing Paladins, in typical Hi-Rez fashion, is its almost nonexistent marketing efforts. While other hero shooters like Overwatch continually push their brand with high-profile marketing campaigns and catchy crossover/collaborative events and skins, Paladins has struggled to get the word out and can really only be found through sheer dumb luck on Steam. The game has relied heavily on word-of-mouth marketing but that's simply not enough in today’s extremely competitive market where every single game feels like it is competing to hold your attention for as long as possible. A quality marketing campaign, even if it isn’t the biggest, could have helped the game reach an audience that doesn’t even know it exists.
Image Credit: Hi-Rez Studios, Paladins Gameplay
Paladins has been absolutely plagued by technical problems that significantly impact the overall player experience in a pretty negative way. Frequent server disconnects, long-standing bugs, and rampant cheating have frustrated everybody who’s played the game at some point in time. These issues have persisted for years, with almost no significant improvements after all this time, leaving many players fed up and moving on to more stable games that don’t have the same issues.
Another common complaint is that Paladins looks and feels outdated compared to other games on the market. The game's use of Unreal Engine 3, which is of course still functional, admittedly gives it an old-fashioned look that has its charm but mayhaps hasn’t aged too well. While to some the outdated graphics may not be a dealbreaker (see OSRS), the clunky UI can make it harder for new players to get into the game, especially as standards have risen across the board and many new games coming out these days look absolutely incredible.
We know that some of you might string us up for even mentioning this, but we have to be honest in that from its early days Paladins has struggled to shake off the label of being an Overwatch knockoff. Despite carving out its own little niche, this perception has certainly hurt the game's growth, particularly when competing against Overwatch 2 which, while it has its problems, is generally a more stable and fluid game. If someone is going to invest their time in a game like this, they’ll almost certainly go towards the more-supported and smoother Overwatch option.
Image Credit: Hi-Rez Studios, In-Game Character (Torvald)
One of the most controversial moves by the developers that some may downplay was the removal of features like the kill cam and top plays (removed in update 3.2 nearly 4 years ago). There has been a consistent stream of frustration over these changes, with players arguing that these features added value to the overall experience (an opinion with which I’d agree) and acted as a learning tool for players of all levels, but especially those who were new. Additionally, decisions like the infamous OB64 update, which turned the game into a pay-to-win experience for a time, left a scar that hasn’t quite healed. Although that update was reversed, its damage to the player base may have been permanent.
One more thing worth pointing out that Paladins has become increasingly hostile to new players. The tutorial system does very little to help new players understand the game’s mechanics, some of which can be pretty complicated like which loadout to pick and different item builds. The toxic behavior of some veteran players has definitely, as with many competitive games, driven some newcomers away (although I would argue this isn’t nearly as big of a problem for this game as some others, and unfortunately just comes with the competitive-gaming space these days). New players don’t have access to enough champions, and a toxic environment makes it hard for players to want to stick with it.
While I and many others I know would say that Paladins is a game with a lot of potential, its failure to address key issues stated above has led to a significant decline in its player base over time. Without significant changes and a real effort to attract new players, the bleeding may very well continue until the game is axed completely. Unfortunately, for a lot of games out there, once the spiral begins it is hard to get out of. With that said, however, Paladins did have similar player numbers a couple of years ago and made a little bit of a bounce back (perhaps in part to ill-received Overwatch 2 updates), so perhaps they can do it again.
