After a controversial marketing campaign, Splitgate Arena Reloaded fails to find an audience despite two official launches

Splitgate Arena Reloaded, an overhauled relaunch of arena shooter Splitgate 2, appears to be facing a rocky start in its efforts to revitalise the game.

Released on Steam and consoles on the 17th December, the game's SteamDB figures show an initial peak concurrent player count of 2,297, before drifting down to a relatively stable concurrent count of roughly 1,000 players in recent days. Looking at the original Splitgate's SteamDB stats however shows that game had a concurrent peak of 67,724 during its open beta.

It is of course worth noting that this figure doesn't take into account its new console playerbase, with Splitgate Arena Reloaded available on both PlayStation and Xbox. In addition, a blog post by the developers over 150,000 players tried Splitgate Arena Reloaded out in its first five days. It also claims: "retention is the best it's ever been".

That same blog post pledges a major marketing push this year, and various new updates to the shooter as shown in handy roadmap. This month the game is set to receive a new map, the Arena Royale, the One in the Chamber mode, and other additions.

Splitgate Arena Reloaded came about after a series of rough moments for developer 1047 Games. After launching the original Splitgate, a popular indie shooter with a back-to-basics approach to FPS gameplay, the studio would stop servicing that game in favour of a bigger, bolder sequel with faction abilities. This sequel did not prove as popular as 1047 Games hoped, being pulled back into beta following community feedback and lacklustre traction.

At Summer Game Fest last year, game director Ian Proulx wore a MAGA-style "Make FPS Great Again" hat which drew much criticism to both himself and the studio, which he later apologised for. Fast forward to last month, and Splitgate Arena Reloaded released echoing the core arena FPS experience found in the original game.

Alongside hopes that these new updates and a broader marketing push can reignite excitement around the shooter, Splitgate Arena Reloaded is also hosting a selection of competitive events to drum up hype. This includes a $5,000 tournament with Splitgate content creators, as well as a $25,000 community challenge. There's also a welcome back event, in which players can earn the T200 character skin, a popular relic of the original Splitgate.