Just over a year since its original release, Dying Light 2 sees its Steam player count drop below the original Dying Light from 2015, as the parkour-driven zombie game struggles to recover from complaints regarding its story and sidequests, despite its solid free-running and melee combat. Dying Light 2 DLC is on its way, with developer Techland offering a slew of new material in the coming months. Whether this will reclaim some of the Dying Light 2 player base however remains to be seen.
As of this writing, the original Dying Light has 8,270 concurrent players on Steam, with a 24-hour peak of 9,177. Dying Light 2, by contrast, has just 5,396 players, and a 24-hour peak figure of 6,455.
Launching in February 2022, Dying Light 2 originally saw a surge in popularity on Steam, registering an all-time peak player count of 274,983. That figure remains much higher than the all-time record for the original Dying Light, at just over 45,000. The steep drop off in Dying Light 2’s player count, as tracked on SteamDB, represents some of the parkour game’s ongoing issues.
As noted in our own Dying Light 2 review, survival in the zombie game sequel feels considerably easier – and less engaging – than in the original. The world is simple and breezy to navigate, enemies seem weaker, and the game seems more focused on speed, levity, and pouring more and more “content” over you than providing a grounded life-or-death zombie experience.
Some of these issues have been addressed through successive Techland updates, including the melee combat, which now feels heavier and clunkier (in a good way). Nevertheless, much of Dying Light 2’s 2022 patches were centred on new items and cosmetics rather than core gameplay problems.
2023, however, could be the year that Techland turns it around. In April, a new Dying Light 2 update is set to overhaul the game’s physics systems, and in June, new enemies and a “night experience” are expected to arrive. We love a good comeback story, so hopefully Dying Light 2 can pick itself up off the ground.
Keep an eye on the rest of the best upcoming games for 2023. Alternatively, get a load of all the new games available now on PC, or maybe try some great survival games, if you enjoy a brutal battle against the undead.