Doom: The Dark Ages achieved only 29% of Eternal's Steam launch player count, but why?

Well, it's finally out. After months of waiting, people have gotten their hands on Doom: The Dark Ages. We even reviewed the game and gave it a shining 9/10 score, praising the satisfying combat and gorgeous visuals.

While things look good on paper, they have looked a little rough on the Steam front. The game only achieved 29% of the player count that Eternal saw on release day on Valve's platform. While this is by no means a signal that Doom: The Dark Ages was a commercial failure, it is a sign that something is shifting.

Doom: The Dark Ages "only" musters 30,232 Steam players at launch

As spotted by PushSquare, Doom: The Dark Ages scored 30,232 players at its peak during launch day. On paper, that sounds like a good number; however, in comparison to Doom and Doom Eternal, The Dark Ages actually had the weakest Steam debut of the lot.

When you compare that number to Doom Eternal's launch, it puts things into perspective. Eternal managed to attract 104,891 players on release day, with the game only dropping below the 30,000 mark ten days after it came out.

The reason for the drop in Steam player count isn't clear-cut, but there are suspects

Does this mean that Doom: The Dark Ages was a flop? Definitely not. Steam figures are just one factor in a sea of different angles. Even if Steam was the only way to play Doom: The Dark Ages on PC, you still have PS5 and Xbox Series X|S figures to consider. Once you bring other means of playing Doom on a PC into the mix, the Steam stats become less of an indicator of success than some people may think.

However, the almost 70% drop in the player count between Eternal and The Dark Ages on Steam tells us something is going on, even if it's just a shift in how people choose to play games compared to five years ago.

The first, and my favorite reason, is Doom: The Dark Ages' inclusion on the Xbox Game Pass​​​​​. Instead of buying the game at full price, people who are subscribed to the Xbox Game Pass can take Doom: The Dark Ages for a spin at no additional cost. You can play it on your console or your PC, and if your hardware isn't tough enough, you can even stream Doom on the Xbox Game Pass Cloud Gaming service. And with the rising cost of games causing wallets to tighten in response, paying a monthly fee for a whole library of titles instead makes a lot of sense.

There are other potential reasons. People may simply be buying Doom: The Dark Ages on console instead of PC. Given how pricey PC hardware can get, people have decided to swap out the gaming rig for a console since Eternal's 2020 release. And while Doom: The Dark Ages has seen positive reviews, there's a chance the game itself has put people off in some way; perhaps the shift in tone didn't appeal to people, or maybe they're all "Doomed out" for now.

Without all the numbers and opinions to consider, it's impossible to say for sure. What we can say, however, is that gamers have changed their approach quite drastically, and id Software will likely want to know why and how.