Halo Infinite is pretty much dead on Steam

Do you remember when 343 Industries and Microsoft billed Halo Infinite as the next big thing, the reinvention the long-running shooter needed, the title that would see the Xbox exclusive rival Call of Duty? Less than two years later, the numbers are speaking for themselves and it looks like it's the exact opposite.

As the long-awaited sequel to 2015's Halo 5: Guardians, Halo Infinite was supposed to launch as a flagship title for the Xbox Series. Instead, it was delayed and still didn't launch with all its bells and whistles - remember split screen co-op being canned? Some of you have stuck with Infinite, but it doesn't seem like many.

Halo Infinite's Steam numbers speak for themselves

TIL Halo Infinite has lost nearly 98% of its initial player base on Steam
by u/Full-Plastic7324 in Steam

18 months out from launch, it's fair to expect there's been a bit of a dropoff in player numbers. Still, a shocking revelation from Reddit user u/Full-Plastic7324 shows how Halo Infinite has lost 98% of its player base since it launched. We know most of you will likely be playing on Xbox...but still.

At the time of writing, Halo Infinite doesn't appear in the Top 100 most-played, while Steam Charts has its 30-day average as just 3,163 concurrent players. That's pretty grim, but is actually a 5% rise from the previous 30 days. The 30-day peak is 8,329, which is miles off an all-time peak of 256,619. 

Crunching the numbers, Halo Infinite started strong and then quickly tumbled from its November 2021 release. Things went as low as a peak of 10,350 in April 2022, before jumping up to 21,369 with the release of Season 2 in May 2022. The latest jump seemingly comes from the release of Season 4.

Halo Infinite is being decimated on Steam

Click to enlarge

Looking at the bigger picture, Halo Infinite is being bested by some likely (and not-so-likely) candidates. Nothing can seemingly touch CS:GO and Dota 2, but with its pitiful numbers, Halo Infinite has fewer people currently playing it than Disco Elysium, Planet Coaster, and even the notoriously troubled Red Dead Online. 

There have been a number of high-profile departures at 343 Industries, and with confirmation that there's no Halo Infinite DLC, players are rightly looking to the future. The proposed 'Tatanka' Halo battle royale should breathe new life into the IP, while 343 has doubled down on the importance of Halo. 

Much like the bungled misstep of Battlefield 2042, it might be best to write Halo Infinite off as the one that didn't quite hit a bullseye. Thankfully, we know this isn't the end of Master Chief, and for every average Halo game, we have something brilliant like Halo: Reach.