Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has seen a major player boost following the recent “Battle for Tertium” update, jumping from an average of 10,000 players to 43,000. The update launched on Monday, June 23, which is when the peak occurred. While the numbers have been steadily dropping since then, they’re still much better than what Warhammer 40,000: Darktide had been averaging over the past year. Developed by Fatshark, Darktide is set within the Warhammer 40k universe, in which players must recover the city of Tertium from hordes of enemies. At launch, the game received some praise for its atmosphere and visual design, but there was also heavy criticism for its technical issues, lack of content, and a bunch of missing features that had been promised before release. Since then, Fatshark has rolled out major updates, improving the game with new missions, weapons, and progression systems, which helped the game gradually win back parts of its community.

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But Fatshark isn’t done with the game yet, and a few days ago, on June 23, it released Warhammer 40k: Darktide’s Battle for Tertium update, adding a wealth of content for players. As a result of this major patch, Darktide saw a significant player boost, reaching 43,000 players in a single day, according to SteamDB. Just before the update launched, the player count was hovering around 5,000, with an average of 10,000 players over the past few years, which makes the recent spike one of the largest since the game’s all-time peak of 108,395 players nearly 2.6 years ago.
Warhammer 40k: Darktide Reaches 43,000 Players After Battle for Tertium Update

On March 25, Warhammer 40k: Darktide also released a significant update introducing a new game activity called Mortis Trials and a time-limited special event, among other things. Despite these new additions, the game had only seen a small player boost, reaching almost 12,000 concurrent players—nothing compared with the current peak. Right now, the game features an average of 25,000 players, and the number seems to be dropping slowly since the peak, though it has hovered between 20,000 and 40,000. The Battle for Tertium update brought a lot of exciting new features that could explain the current player spike. The standout feature is a new Warhammer 40k: Darktide class called the Arbites, which players can get for $11.99. Additionally, Battle for Tertium brought what Fatshark described as an overhaul of “the core player experience,” tackling several different areas of the game and introducing a new, more organized linear campaign, missions, and more. While players continue enjoying Darktide’s new update, it remains to be seen whether the update manages to keep and maintain a higher, more stable player base moving forward.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

7/10

Released

November 30, 2022

ESRB

M For Mature Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence

Developer(s)

Fatshark

Publisher(s)

Fatshark

Engine

bitsquid