Highguard launches to nearly 100k concurrent players despite mostly negative reviews

Free-to-play PvP raid shooter Highguard has arrived to an impressive concurrent player count on Steam, peaking at almost 100,000 so far. However, it appears that players aren’t impressed by the game itself, being met with negative reviews.

The details:

• According to SteamDB, Highguard hit 97,249 concurrent players on January 26, marking a surprisingly large launch for the title given the lack of promotion following its reveal at The Game Awards in December 2025. However, it appears that interest may already be declining, with just over 15,000 players in-game at the time of writing, raising questions about its staying power.
• The game currently holds a "Mostly Negative" rating on Steam with approximately 14,500 reviews, of which only 32% are positive. While some negative reviews cite technical issues such as poor optimization, server instability, and the inclusion of a kernel-level anti-cheat system, much of the criticism focuses on the game’s content. Players have highlighted that the core gameplay loop is “boring,” with the looting phase at the beginning of each match being too long, and that there is too much downtime due to the smaller 3v3 squad size being used on larger maps.
• Despite the poor initial reception, developer Wildlight Entertainment has already outlined its roadmap for the game's first year of content and stated that it is committed to the title's long-term development. “Highguard’s live service is built around Episodes — each lasting roughly two months and split into two parts — with new core content arriving each month throughout 2026, including content such as maps, bases, modes, Wardens, weapons, mounts, raid tools, and additional loot items,” the studio said.