I really wanted to like The Lord of the Rings Gollum. While the premise was a little more obscure than other LotR games, the character’s complexity and the advertised Smeagol vs Gollum system piqued my interest. However, Gollum’s bizarre underground adventure failed to live up to expectations – something that its Steam player count reflects.
As mentioned in our Lord of the Rings Gollum review, there wasn’t much to love about the former Hobbit’s grim adventure. Having watched a bunch of playthroughs of it myself (I do have a life, I promise), I’m still a little unsure if it was meant to be an RPG game or a janky platformer. Either way, though, The Lord of the Rings Gollum failed to draw a crowd.
Following the news that the game’s apology statement was allegedly written by AI tool ChatGPT, I went down a rabbit hole to take a look at the game’s Steam statistics – and boy, are they harrowing.
In the past 30 days, Lord of the Rings Gollum’s average player count is three, and in September it came in at 3.2. For every day in October, Steam Charts notes that there is at least one period where there are zero players playing the game. Sorry, Gollum, looks like you’ll have to escape the Orc camp by yourself.
While I thought that Redfall’s player stats were bad, this one actually hurts me a little. I grew up with LotR and have fond memories of Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. A part of me hoped that Gollum would deliver something new and exciting, but alas.
It’s been a while since we had a good LotR game, and while the upcoming cozy game from Private Division and Wētā Workshop looks cute, I’m missing that grittiness; that sorrow and strife. Hopefully Amazon‘s mysterious new Lord of the Rings-inspired MMORPG fills that void.
There’s also another upcoming PC game that might be worth your time if you love all things Middle-earth: LotR Return to Moria. You can check out everything we know about the Lord of the Rings Return to Moria release date, or, if you’re just looking to scratch that magical itch, our list of the best fantasy games on PC instead.