Summary
Alan Wake 2did not make it to October’s top 150 games with the most active users. This is a surprising piece of information, asAlan Wake 2 was recently nominated at The Game Awards 2023for Game of the Year. Considering it was only released in October 2023, receiving honors and accolades for the nomination would imply that the game had a positive impact on the gaming community. Those who are part of this category normally have record-breaking sales and are popular with fans and gamers alike. Hence, it’s quite shocking to find out that the player base for the game has not breached a list of games with the most active players.
Granted,Alan Wake 2did come out with mixed reviews. Many praised the graphics and the memorable moments to be found in-game, but a shared sentiment was the tedious gameplay. Not to mention, various technical issues were still present which may have possibly affected many fans' enjoyment and attention towards the game. Still, the title was a long-awaited follow-up to a story most fans had been dying to continue, so the fanfare was quite huge.
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However, according to tweets by Circana’s Mat Piscatella,Alan Wake 2has failed to breach the top 150 games with the most active users for the month of October. This implies that the title had failed to capture player engagement, which is quite unusual for a game nominated at The Game Awards. Unfortunately, the said charts go both for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, which also means the game failed to chart on both consoles. However, this could also just mean that, amid high sales, a lot of players haven’t spent much time playing the game at the moment. This might very well change with thelatestAlan Wake 2patch, which could see a huge improvement in terms of performance and gameplay.
Looking at Piscatella’s screenshots, the games that did chart had a heavy multiplayer aspect. Games such asNBA 2K24, Mortal Kombat 1, Grand Theft Auto 5, Gotham Knights,andForza Motorsport, to name a few, have a large focus on their online modes. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the titles mentioned were available far longer thanAlan Wake 2, so this could also have been a contributing factor. Another factor is that Circana’s lists just cover the US market, so the global charts might say otherwise.
While some considerAlan Wake 2to be a surprising entry to The Game Awards 2023, most believe thatBaldur’s Gate 3will take the win. Still, many fans expect the player base to rise further once the awards are over, especially since it will bring more eyes to the product. The game was nominated even just three weeks after release, so there really is high potential for the title to succeed. Perhaps it really just needs time to saturate, especially with the updates and patches meant to fix it, and maybe then, players will be able to spend more time enjoyingAlan Wake 2.
Alan Wake 2
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A string of ritualistic murders threatens Bright Falls, a small-town community surrounded by Pacific Northwest wilderness. Saga Anderson, an accomplished FBI agent with a reputation for solving impossible cases arrives to investigate the murders. Anderson’s case spirals into a nightmare when she discovers pages of a horror story that starts to come true around her.Alan Wake, a lost writer trapped in a nightmare beyond our world, writes a dark story in an attempt to shape the reality around him and escape his prison. With a dark horror hunting him, Wake is trying to retain his sanity and beat the devil at his own game.Anderson and Wake are two heroes on two desperate journeys in two separate realities, connected at heart in ways neither of them can understand: reflecting each other, echoing each other, and affecting the worlds around them.Fueled by the horror story, supernatural darkness invades Bright Falls, corrupting the locals and threatening the loved ones of both Anderson and Wake. Light is their weapon—and their safe haven — against the darkness they face. Trapped in a sinister horror story where there are only victims and monsters, can they break out to be the heroes they need to be?
