Turtle Rock Studios' Back 4 Blood is attempting to fill the big shoes left partially empty by Left 4 Dead. The four-player co-op survival shooter is a spiritual successor to the L4D games, also developed by Turtle Rock (under Valve). Left 4 Dead 2 was released in 2009, and no other games have scratched quite the same itch since. If Back 4 Blood's beta statistics are anything to go by, it has a good shot at securing some of the L4D audience.
Back 4 Blood's campaign mode is very similar to that of Left 4 Dead; players traverse a level from point A to point B, killing zombies and completing a few objectives along the way. There are some differences, though, and Turtle Rock was eager to insist early on that B4B isn't just a rehash of L4D. Back 4 Blood has an in-game shop and currency system, deck-building mechanics, and a variety of weapon attachments. Its PvP is where it is most unique, opting for a versus mode that pits survivors against zombies in an ever-shrinking arena.
According to a recent Back 4 Blood stats video, the game's August beta attracted over 5.6 million players. The number is certainly impressive, but it remains to be seen how many players were convinced to pick up the full release. Regardless, exposure is key to game sales, and getting more than five million people in the beta bodes well for Back 4 Blood's success.
Back 4 Blood's Open Beta Statistics
During the beta, the average player killed more than 1,000 zombies - or Ridden, as they're called in Back 4 Blood. More than 6 billion common Ridden were slain, along with 164 million special Ridden. This means common Ridden outnumbered their more powerful counterparts nearly 38 to 1. The special Ridden are generally much tougher to kill, but luckily for players, they have weak points, which the video says were hit over 35 billion times. Other stats detail the most-used melee and ranged weapons - the Fire Axe and M4 Carbine, respectively - and the most popular Cleaner character, Walker.
The final stat shared by Turtle Rock Studios is how many PvP matches were played: 548,357. This seems like a low number, considering the 5.6 million players. Even if all 5.6 million only participated in a single match of the maximum capacity - eight players - that would result in about 700,000 games.
That eight-player mode, Versus, is so far the most widely criticized aspect of B4B. Some felt the structure of the Back 4 Blood's PvP mode wastes time and that the game would have been better off with a Versus Campaign mode, like L4D's. The free entry to Back 4 Blood's open beta was likely a big draw, so it will be interesting to see if its final price affects its popularity, though its day-one presence on Xbox Game Pass is likely to help as well.
Back 4 Blood will be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 12, 2021.
Source: Back 4 Blood/YouTube