The Steam player count for Aliens: Fireteam Elite is incredibly low as of writing, indicating the game has already fallen out of favor within two months of its worldwide release. Developed by Cold Iron Studios, Aliens: Fireteam Elite launched across consoles and PC on August 23 to middling review scores. A quick look at Metacritic shows players aren't too hot on the Aliens-branded tactical shooter, either.
Unimpressive AI, formulaic design choices, and repetition kept the cooperative title from living up to its fullest potential. And the post-launch support, or disappointing lack thereof, hasn't given lapsed users too many reasons to revisit the experience. WB Games' and developer Turtle Rock Studios' recent deployment of Back 4 Blood is likely stifling interest in the two-month-old Fireteam Elite, as well. Unfortunately, the latter's current Steam numbers do not bode well for its future, either.
Freelance gaming and tech writer Dominic Tarason (via Kotaku) recently called attention to Aliens: Fireteam Elite's player count on PC. As of the morning of October 17, Steam Charts had the title's player count hovering around 800 active users in total. At the time of writing, that number sits at approximately 550, which seems dismal for a cooperative adventure that launched a little less than eight weeks ago. The peak player count on Steam tops 15,550, with the peak for the last 30 days listed as 3,849. By comparison, Back 4 Blood's all-time peak is over 65,000 according to Steam Charts; its concurrent user count at press time is eclipsing 34,000.
As the likes of No Man's Sky and Rainbow Six: Siege have demonstrated previously, there's always a chance that developers can turn things around. A few well-received updates here and a robust content patch there may well give Aliens: Fireteam Elite a new lease on life someday. The recent resurgence of Final Fantasy XIV, which once endured a disastrous release of its own, exemplifies what's possible when a developer and publisher refuse to give up.
Originally announced as Aliens: Fireteam in March of this year, Aliens: Fireteam Elite takes place in the year 2202 - two-plus decades after the events of Alien 3. The story begins with a distress call, of course, to which a fireteam of Colonial Marines responds. Upon investigating the signal, the crew stumble across a station overrun with Xenomorphs. As is often the case, chaos ensues.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Source: Steam Charts via Dominic Tarason, Kotaku