Now more than ever, gamers and pundits are flocking to SteamDB to track the number of players engaging with existing live service titles and recently released titles to try and piece together whether a game is failing or succeeding. It's not perfect since most of the games are released on PC and consoles, but it's as close as the image we have public access to.
Right now, that effort is focused on Marathon, Bungie's latest title. Before it was turned off, attention was focused on the Highguard. And before that it was Concord. Do you sense a pattern there?
If the players could see Highguard's impending failure, why couldn't anyone else?
Wildlight Entertainment has confirmed that Highguard will be offline next week.
Seemingly not content with the data that exists, a new website has sprung up that tracks titles in real-time to see if they “flop.” It's called Flopathon, naturally, and, as first noticed by Push Square, it pulls data from SteamDB, albeit with a different agenda.
“While publishers hide behind agendas and PR spin, we're watching what really matters – the players,” reads the site's homepage. “Raw data. Real numbers. No stories. We don't care about your politics. We care about your game. Don't try to label us haters because we label the wrong product. We're not here for agendas – we're here for the truth about player numbers.”
The site has set out four core principles that will seemingly guide its approach:
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“Live Player Count Tracking – Unfiltered, Unsponsored”
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“Community Verdicts: Players Decide What Failed”
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“No corporate influence. No paid reviews. No bullshit.”
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“Focused on the game. Player first. Always.”
The site also has goals for a reason
One thing that stands out is that there are “goals” that are specifically pursued. These titles are seemingly the ones that went against the site's mission.
Right now the “goals” are as follows:
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Marathon
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1348 Ex Voto
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Crimson desert
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The last flag
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Solasta II
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Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection
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Skull and bones
Each individual page contains detailed player data, including concurrent graphs and percentage increases and decreases. You can vote whether the game is “Flop” or “Hot”. For example, Marathon has 1,700 votes for “Flop” status versus 435 votes for “Hot” status.
There's a chat log called “Field Reports” and Discord.
“This site is true web democracy. Fuck the naysayers,” one user wrote in the chat log.
And there's even a “Testimonials” page full of tweets from people criticizing the site, perhaps as a way to show that the mission is worthwhile.
SteamDB has already done most of this as an independent effort, so it's unclear what gap is being filled beyond allowing people to discuss in real time whether a game is succeeding or failing, which already happens regularly anyway.
- Released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen / Animated blood, language, violence, in-game purchases, user interaction
- Multiplayer
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Online multiplayer, online co-op
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