Highguard is finally out on Steam, but its launch has been far from smooth. Despite peaking at nearly 100,000 concurrent players, the game is currently sitting at an Overwhelmingly Negative rating with over 10,000 reviews. For those who don’t know, it was one of the major highlights during The Game Awards 2025, that comes from makers of popular titles like Apex Legends and Titanfall.
The reveal trailer itself received mostly negative reactions from the audience, followed by weeks of silence from the studio on all social media platforms. Now that the game is live, Geoff Keighley, the founder of The Game Awards, asked the players on X whether they are enjoying the game so far, and one of the users replied:
“It’s free and I still want a refund.”
Several other players also shared strong reactions under the same post. User @solace6k called out Geoff Keighly for misleading players by presenting the game as good. Another user, @gosuprime022 stated that Highguard’s six-player lobby runs worse than 64 players lobby of Battlefield 6. Meanwhile, @GodofInk96 stated that the game didn’t deserve the final reveal placement at The Game Awards.
Similarly, the Steam reviews for Highguard have been equally brutal. User @luijix said the core idea was interesting but criticized the netcode, comparing it to the rough launch of Battlefield 4. Meanwhile, @ashleychristie reacted sarcastically, saying the game made them step away from their PC entirely after one match. Another player, Tzu Nami, felt the 3v3 format did not work well with the maps.
How many people are playing Highguard on Steam?
Despite the wave of negative reviews and heavy criticism online, Highguard still managed to peak at over 97,000 concurrent players on Steam, which is an impressive number for a brand new shooter. That said, the player retention doesn’t seemto be ideal. As of writing, Highguard is sitting at around 40,000 concurrent players, which is still a solid figure.
However, the rapidly increasing negative reviews and sharp decline within a few hours makes the future of the game quite uncertain.
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Edited by Harshit Singh
