Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has Fewer Day 1 Players than Marvel’s Avengers

Video Games

Remember Marvel’s Avengers, the video game fans were excited for that turned out to be a disappointing bait-and-switch that bombed so hard it was delisted three years later? Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League just asked it to hold its wine spritzer. According to PCGamesN, the first-day Steam peak player count for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is less than half of what Marvel’s Avengers was, 12,667 to 29,916. The game debuted to a series of problems, from a bug that gave players 100% game completion before they even started playing to servers going down to a storyline that left fans miffed at the treatment of some beloved DC superheroes. Here’s what PCGamesN had to say:

“Marvel’s Avengers launched out of early access on Friday, September 4, 2020, with a peak player count of 29,916, which decreased to a steady average of 1,000 in about a month. In contrast, Suicide Squad launched out of early access on Friday, February 2, 2024, to a peak of 12,667 players. That’s less than half of the Avengers game’s day one peak, according to SteamDB.”

This doesn’t bode well for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It’s just getting started, and nobody wants to play it. Compare that to Palworld, the goofy-looking “Pokémon with guns” indie game from Japan that had over 550,000 players at its opening day peak, a number that grew to over 1.7 million players over the following few days. You’d think a game featuring playable characters like Harley Quinn and Deadshot – not to mention Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash in supporting roles – would generate enough interest to at least be closer to a novelty like Palworld. Beyond that, people seem to like Palworld, whereas most aren’t impressed with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (many gamers have been looking up how to secure a refund) and word traveled fast on both counts, so Suicide Squad’s numbers probably won’t grow much in the days to come. And, in case you’re wondering, Palworld is also outselling Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League two weeks after its release:

Palworld is outselling Suicide Squad, a AAA title that took over a decade to make with hundreds of developers. The gaming industry is doomed. pic.twitter.com/c2uH4WPDM1

— tae kim (@firstadopter) February 4, 2024

This is an embarrassment for Rocksteady, especially after the success of their Arkham series, of which this game is supposed to be the capper. That phrase from The Dark Knight about dying a hero comes to mind for some reason.