Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Steam player peak is less than half of those of the other infamous live-service superhero game, Marvel’s Avengers.
As noted on SteamDB, a third-party website that tracks various data of Steam, Marvel’s Avengers had an all time peak of 31,165 players on September 5th, 2020. This was 24 hours after launch, and the game’s all-time peak. The peak being so soon after launch is typical, usually being bucked in rare cases by major updates or exposure via YouTube or social media.
However, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League saw only 13,459 players — again, the day after it’s launch. To add salt to the wound, even the beta for Marvel’s Avengers had an all-time peak of 18,908 players on Steam.
It should be noted that this does not account for players on other platforms, but the comparison is nonetheless yet another blow to Rocksteady Studio’s latest game. The similarities aren’t hard to draw — both titles were reviled for the live service elements and currencies they featured as well as other issues.
Marvel’s Avengers would even shut down three years after launch, and saw publisher Square Enix suffer a $48 million loss in the quarter it launched.
Meanwhile, fans speculated that Rocksteady Studios’ next big project after the Arkham games was originally intended to be a live-service game like Marvel’s Avengers. After it bombed, the developers supposedly adjusted the game to be more akin to Destiny 2.
If not that, the backlash from trailers revealing the game’s multiple currencies and requiring a constant online connection certainly made the point. At the time, trailers were beset with an almost 3:1 dislike/like ratio.
Plot leaks, tone-deaf handling of Kevin Conroy’s final scene in a video game as Batman, and sexual harassment whistleblowers also furthered any bad press the game already had.
Initial reviews for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League were also tepid at best, and the $100 Deluxe Edition couldn’t grant early access — as Rocksteady Studios soon found players were getting completed save files due to a bug.
After pulling the game offline (again, making it unplayable even in single player), they gave affected players $20 of in-game currency in compensation.