Halo Infinite was launched almost three years ago and has lost more than 95% of its initial players, prompting many to ask if the game is still alive.
Is It Worth Playing Halo Infinite in 2024?
Halo is without a doubt one of the biggest franchises in all of gaming. It has spawned many successful titles with Halo Infinite being the latest one, which hit the market in late 2021. The game also signaled a major change in developer 343 Industries’ overall strategy, as Halo Infinite moved the franchise to a free-to-play model with the PC player base being a key cornerstone.
While this new way of thinking for the franchise, which is famous for being almost entirely exclusive to Xbox, initially attracted many new fans, Halo Infinite’s player numbers have drastically reduced over time. According to Steam Charts, the game has averaged about 3,000 concurrent players so far this year, with that number slowly going down. With this being the case, many wonder if the game isn’t “dead” and if it’s even worth playing in 2024.
In this article, we will try to answer this question. As we’ll see, the truth is a bit more complicated than a simple yes/no answer. The players’ opinions on the matter are mixed, just like they were about many other aspects of the game.
There Are Not a Lot of Players Now
Halo Infinite holds a personal record of 256,619 concurrent players, which happened in November of 2021, the same month the game was released. This high number is due to many reasons, but chief among these is the fact that this was the first mainline Halo title since 2015. It’s safe to say that the fan base was hungry for a new game. In addition, Halo Infinite is free-to-play, which also contributed to the hype and large player numbers in the beginning.
However, this number drastically reduced in the following months. While it is normal for games to have reduced player numbers after the initial hype dies down, Halo Infinite lost over 98% of its player base. It has now become rather difficult to find competitive games, with fans reporting they have to wait sometimes up to ten minutes to find a match.
Let’s see why the player base shrunk so drastically:
Halo Infinite Had Many Issues Upon Launch
It’s unfortunately become somewhat of a trend for AAA games to launch with multiple bugs that get patched over time. Halo Infinite is no exception to that as the game had many issues in the first months of its launch, which caused many to abandon the title. Players complained of desynchronization, visual bugs, excessive lag, objects clipping through the world, and many more.
While most of these problems were fixed in the following months, the reputational damage has already been done. By March of 2022, the average player count was already in the four-digit numbers and it has not passed 10,000 until this day.
Fans Were Unhappy About Microtransactions
Since Halo Infinite is free-to-play, 343 Industries needed to find another way to make money from the game. It turns out that microtransactions were the solution, and while many other games also do the same thing, it seems it wasn’t the greatest solution for Halo Infinite.
Up to this title, the franchise has always been a one-time-pay affair. Players would buy the game, say Halo 3 for the Xbox, and play to unlock the game’s cosmetics. Having a particular skin was seen as a mark of skill and dedication as the player had to grind to unlock the cosmetic.
However, Halo Infinite allowed players to buy the item they desired and many veterans disliked that. Now, they argued that having particular south-after items was not a mark of the individual’s skills. Not to mention many items were hidden behind a paywall.
While 343 Industries eventually made it so many items could be acquired through grinding the battle pass, or even by playing the game freely, the damage had already been done. Many players left the game because they were simply unhappy with the, admittedly controversial, marketing strategy that the developers implemented.
There Are Still Some Good Things About the Situation
While the low player numbers might seem like a good indication that Halo Infinite is “dead”, things might not be the way they seem. Considering 343 Industries continues to make regular content updates for the game, it seems that the title still brings money in, meaning the company is unlikely to abandon it soon.
In addition, while it may be hard to find competitive games, as there aren’t many players playing these mods, fans have reported good waiting times when it comes to casual game modes. Halo has always been a 16 to 24-player game, and classic 12v12 modes such as Capture the Flag or Slayer are still rather popular in Infinite.
Furthermore, the fact that there aren’t many players in the game right now, doesn’t mean the gameplay isn’t great. Halo Infinite has some of, if not the best game mechanics of any title in the franchise. The dynamic, speed, and maneuverability of the game make you feel like an actual Spartan roaring across the battlefield.
Lastly, while some cosmetics are still hidden behind a paywall, Halo Infinite has now amassed a large amount of cosmetics over the almost three years it has existed. Many of these can be unlocked by simply playing the game, albeit you still need the battle pass for many of them.
Conclusions
While Halo Infinite has long past its’ initial glory days and lost a huge proportion of its players, the game still isn’t dead. What few players remain seem to be the most dedicated fans. And while it’s hard to find competitive matches, casual games are still regularly played.
In terms of the actual performance of the game, 343 Industries have smoothed out most of the issues, although some networking problems are still sometimes resolved. If these bugs had been taken care of much earlier in the game’s history, or even before its release (like they should), there would have been far fewer players who abandoned Halo Infinite initially.
Cosmetics were one of the main grapes the community had with the game initially. Players complained of a lack of content and the fact that what little there was, was hidden behind a paywall. However, now there’s a lot more variety in terms of cosmetics, many of which can be unlocked by playing with a battle pass.
Taking all of this into account, we can say that Halo Infinite is still kicking, albeit with a much-reduced fandom. Its competitive scene is lacking, but the casual is still stable. So if you’re looking for a more casual (and also free) halo experience, then Halo Infinite is for you. However, if you want livelier competitive play, you might want to migrate to Halo: The Master Chief Collection (MCC), as many players have already done.
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