Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
R6 SIEGE X | YEAR 10 ROADMAP REVEALMay 21, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsThe Year 10 Roadmap has been revealed! Live from the RE:LO:AD Esports event in Rio de Janeiro, the Reveal Panel covered all the content launching with SIEGE X on June 10, as well as Seasons 3 and 4 coming later this year. Explore the whole YEAR 10 ROADMAP. SEASON 2 – SIEGE X | OPERATION DAYBREAK The biggest evolution in Siege’s history launches on June 10. Bring your squad in with Free Access and experience the new era of Siege with modernized maps, a new 6v6 game mode, advanced rappel, overhauled audio, weapon inspection, and so much more! For all current players, make sure to claim your Veteran Rewards to highlight your years of engagement in the game, and don’t worry, all your existing progression and inventory will be carried over naturally. Read more about Season 2 in the latest Patch Notes. SEASON 3 The third season will continue bringing more modernized maps, as well as a brand-new Defense Operator, a new weapon, more updates to Siege Cup and Dual Front, and further Player Protection features. SEASON 4 As we are wrapping up this year of Siege, a new Operator Remaster will be introduced, paired with a new cross-Operator weapon, new modernized maps and a full Map Rework which will be added directly to Ranked Mode. In Season 4, Siege will also be celebrating its 10-year Anniversary with a special in-game event. Stay tuned for more info… The 'new era' of Rainbow Six Siege means you're going to need some newer hardware if you want to playMay 20, 2025 - PC Gamernnounced in February, Rainbow Six Siege X makes some major changes to Ubisoft's venerable team-based shooter, including a move to free-to-play (kind of) and its first permanent mode in a decade. And yes, with 10 years under the bridge it also comes to the table with some new and rather more demanding hardware requirements... Read more.The Rainbow Six Siege X system requirements remarkably list an RTX 4070 Ti SuperMay 20, 2025 - PCGamesNThe Rainbow Six Siege X system requirements have landed, and we now have an idea of what PC hardware we'll need to run the tactical shooter at resolutions up to 4K and frame rates of up to 120fps. This long-awaited update brings some major graphical upgrades, but I still wasn't expecting to see an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super Ti listed in the specs. While you won't need the best graphics card to get great performance in Rainbow Six Siege at 1080p, if you want to push for 120fps at 4K, then you're going to need a fairly decent gaming PC. Comparing these new specs to the original Rainbow Six Siege system requirements shows just how far we've come in the last decade of PC hardware. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Save a huge $56 on our favorite Logitech wireless gaming mouse, but be quick Mindseye system requirements spark concern with Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 demand SteelSeries just made its budget gaming mouse better, and it's still under $40 SIEGE X | RE:LO:ADMay 11, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsReload is not just another competition—it’s an intense battle of strategy, risk-taking, and skill. With a unique format that rewards bold moves and punishes hesitation, every match counts. Will teams play it safe and manage their resources carefully, or take bold risks in pursuit of glory — and their share of the €480,000 prize pool? At the heart of Reload is the Bullet system—but don’t be mistaken, “Bullets” aren’t in-game ammunition! In this competition, Bullets are a strategic scoring resource that influence a team’s ranking, standing, and survival. Managing them wisely is just as important as winning matches. Adding another layer of strategy, teams have access to special Cards that can influence the course of the competition. Some provide additional Bullets, others help teams navigate challenging matchups, and a few enable bold, game-changing decisions. Knowing when and how to use these Cards could be the key to advancing to the Playoffs.R6 Shieldguard & Anit-Toxicity – Y10S1 UPDATEMay 9, 2025 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8328525/491667e8b9afd37db62edf90e8ed24f639e5fc1a.png Today our R6 Shieldguard and Anti-Toxicity teams will be sharing their latest updates. We’ll have a deep dive on features and results from Y10S1, as well as a look at some of the updates coming to the game in the future. IN THIS UPDATE R6 ShieldGuard ANTI-TOXICITY Standing Distribution Impacts – Negative Actions Decreasing Tuning & Additional Repercussions Automated Textchat Moderation {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8328525/c178ba4683802838adca5cc6d1c485db9843403a.png STATUS OVERVIEW Cheater reports have seen a downward trend throughout Y9S3, and this continued right up to the release of Y10S1.1. Since the Y10S1.1 update, we have seen an increase in cheater reports on PC. Thanks to your in-game cheater reports, our team has identified a correlation to some of our recent security updates. Below we’ll dive into those updates and the action we’re taking to turn this latest development around. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8328525/9b885696b3b3f6df3351231a394aa10d8f45b6de.png MAKING OUR CODE STRONGER – NEW TECHNOLOGY In Y10S1 and in partnership with the security teams of Ubisoft, we introduced a hardening technology which enables new ways to secure our game code, making it more robust against cheat makers. This new technology now serves as a foundation for many other security improvements that will ship throughout the year. WE ARE CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVING The in-game impact of this technology was positive initially, though following Y10S1.1, we recorded an increase in cheater reports. We’ve seen that there is room for improvement, however this has only bolstered our commitment, and so we’ve worked to push new features throughout Y10S1, making the system more secure. Additionally, we’ve kept to our commitment to push security updates alongside patches, and so security hotfixes will continue leading up to and after the release of Siege X. Two additional security hotfixes are scheduled for deployment in May to further reinforce this approach. FIGHTING LAG ABUSE TO PROTECT FAIR PLAY In Y10S1, and with the help of the community, we fixed several exploits that were abusing network lag. We want to take the opportunity to heartfully thank the community, from content creators to everyone who submitted R6Fix reports. You have all helped us to both reproduce and fix many of these exploits that were possible on console. We’re continuing to monitor the situation and to help prevent lag exploits on a wider basis, we are currently working on a global solution, using stricter network tolerations (More info to come soon). PREVENTING MnK ON CONSOLE Previously we shared that console cheater reports increased after the launch of Crossplay, and that we fixed an exploit that would allow spoofers to by-pass detection. We can now confirm that reports have seen a drop of approximately 20%. However, Console cheater reports are still higher than pre-crossplay numbers and we are aware of anti-recoil cheats disrupting the community. ...COMMUNITY ARTIST BUNDLE PROGRAM Y10S2: GLAMBERTILUVUMay 8, 2025 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8328525/2d1dad48febbe3a946b8b0e1258575c502d57247.png COMMUNITY ARTIST BUNDLE: GLAMBERTILUVU The Community Artist Bundle Program is back with yet another amazing operator set! This bundle has been designed in collaboration with artist Glambertiluvu and will be available for purchase in the in-game store for a limited time, starting May 8. With this program, we want to celebrate our amazingly creative and dedicated community artists and give them the chance to have their art styles represented in-game. Each chosen artist will have the opportunity to design a full set for an operator of their choice and the resulting bundles will become available for limited time during Year 9 and beyond. Glambertiluvu’s Iana Operator Bundle includes: Uniform Headgear ARX200 weapon skin Charm Don’t forget to have a look at our previous bundles if you haven’t yet: SAU_SIEGE, Sunstark, FrAgMenT, Pericote, Shinosaaaaaaang, Siege Tales, Retrodisaster, LevaSoj, and Notamutemain. ABOUT THE ARTIST Glambertiluvu’s – also known as RuL – interest for art started during her childhood as her parents were buying her art books and supplies. This led RuL to create doodles at a very young age, and even to draw on top of the illustrations in her school textbooks when growing up. Due to her obsession with visual arts and painting, she chose graphic design as her university major. In 2021, RuL transitioned from semi-realism to a 2D cartoon art style using flat colors. This style is reflected in her bundle for Iana: from the design of the charm to the color palette used throughout the operator and weapon skin. Impressed by Iana’s background and obsession for aerospace engineering, she chose to add different references to those in her bundle. Noticeably, the “space buns” hairstyle which is derived from the space-themed pop culture. Other starry details such as hair clips and face paint are found on Iana’s skin. The most astute eyes will notice the graffiti on Iana’s chest armor – “Meijer”, her real last name. Originally playing single-player games such as Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, Glambertiluvu was drawn into Siege thanks to Lion’s voice actor, Shawn Baichoo, who also interpreted Machiavelli in Assassin’s Creed II and Wrench in Watch Dogs 2. She described being chosen to collaborate with the Rainbow Six Siege team on designing this bundle as the highlight of her career, bringing her joy and pride. As a final word, we would like to quote RuL: “I would like to express my gratitude to the R6S community for their passion. Creating this concept art was a labor of love, and I hope it resonates with players as much as it does with me. The community's engagement and enthusiasm inspire me to continue pushing creative boundaries, and I look forward to contributing more in the future.” To see more of Glambertiluvu’s work, go check her Twitter and Instagram accounts. FAQ What is the Community Artist Bundle Program? The Community Artist Bundle Program launched in Y6S1 and it br...R6 ESPORTS | RE:LO:AD PredictionsApr 28, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsEarn rewards! RE:LO:AD predictions are live RE:LO:AD - The first-ever Siege X esports event – RE:LO:AD is about to begin, and predictions are now open! Get ready to showcase your strategic skills and predict the outcomes. Head to r6esports.com to submit your predictions for the event. You have until the first match on May 10 to lock in your picks. Don't miss your chance to win the exclusive R4-C CREATIVE DESTRUCTION skin, the Y10S2 Battle Pass and Alpha packs! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8328525/d65fa6124a00ce2f749fce78480cc8bf4b63f62f.jpgY10S1.3 PATCH NOTESApr 15, 2025 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8328525/625125075334bd73f0c998a8c7dcb1b09ac6d633.jpg See the upcoming changes to Rainbow Six Siege with the release of Y10S1.3! BUG FIXES GAMEPLAY FIXED - Ace Up the Sleeve badge doesn't count during an Ace round when enemy players reconnect to the match. USER EXPERIENCE FIXED - Players are unable to connect on PC with error 0x00000140. FIXED - Players get stuck on the deployment phase and can't progress the match. FIXED - Equipped reputation card backgrounds don't update when a player has a change in their reputation. FIXED - Operator unlock videos don't play when unlocking Operators, and can't be viewed in the Operators section after being unlocked. An XCOM inspired Rainbow Six Siege strategy game is reportedly on the wayApr 6, 2025 - PCGamesNUbisoft could be working on an all-new turn-based tactics game, and it's allegedly a spinoff of Rainbow Six Siege. A new report claims that the company behind Assassin's Creed and Far Cry is transforming its live service FPS hit into another genre entirely, and it sounds as though it'll take a lot of inspiration from the XCOM games. So if you've been itching for more tense decision-making after XCOM 2's War of the Chosen DLC, Ubisoft may just have you covered. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Rainbow Six Siege and GTA 5 now "Playable" on Steam Deck, despite anti-cheat Rainbow Six Siege X won't be playable for some people until they upgrade PCs Rainbow Six Siege X is real, and will totally transform the decade-old FPS Y10S1.2 PATCH NOTESApr 1, 2025 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8328525/c5a8c8ad69650058ad43f87b551d39ab9e3aa446.jpg See the upcoming changes to Rainbow Six Siege with the release of Y10S1.2 BUG FIXES OPERATORS FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel trigger won't work if the panel is closed while on a drone. FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel can't be deployed if it's facing the front of a deployable shield. FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel appears lowered in the killcam, even when it's actually raised. FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel trigger looks closed or missing after deployment during the end of round. FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel is placed incorrectly on a double door during the end of round. FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel doesn't deploy on lower floor doorways when shot through a hatch at a specific angle. Fixed - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel becomes unresponsive when its red target is shot. USER EXPERIENCE FIXED - Universal weapon skins are missing for Skopós' PCX-33. Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six will soon have their developments "spearheaded" by Ubisoft and Tencent's new €4 billion babyMar 28, 2025 - VG247Well, there you go. After all the chatter about Ubisoft and Tencent possibly doing a business thing together, the mega-corps have gone and done one. It's a deal to create a new mini-Ubisoft subsidiary that'll "spearhead development" on the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six series. Read more Tencent hand Ubisoft a big wad of cash to spin out Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six as a separate businessMar 27, 2025 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunWell, there you have it folks. After months of uncertainty over share price falls, major game delays and squabbles with investors, Ubisoft have opened up a new subsidiary to look after their biggest-selling Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry games, with Tencent chucking in a whopping €1.16 billion - meaning that the latter will have a 25% stake in the new spin-off business when all is said and done. Read more Steam Global Top Sellers for week of 18 Mar — 25 March 2025Mar 25, 2025 - SteamDB * Assassin’s Creed Shadows; * R.E.P.O.; * Split Fiction; * Steam Deck; * Monster Hunter Wilds; * Cyberpunk 2077; * HELLDIVERS™ 2; * Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land; * Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Siege; * EA SPORTS FC™ 25; * excluding free to play games View top 100 on SteamDBY10S1.1 PATCH NOTESMar 24, 2025 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8328525/97a99e584fc20ef6bba0510bb34e71f88bf1e13b.jpg Here you can find the fixes for the Y10S1.1 patch. BUG FIXES GAMEPLAY FIXED - End-of-match actions won't be recorded for players who disconnect then reconnect during the match. FIXED - Several operators' left hands clip through specific secondary weapons during the reload animation when the operator is in a prone position. FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel can't be deployed when the operator is facing the front side of the deployable shield. OPERATORS FIXED - Deploying a breach charge near the trigger for Rauora's D.O.M. Panel closes the flaps. FIXED - No points are awarded when successfully deploying Rauora's D.O.M. Panel. FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel trigger does not open if the panel is closed on top of a drone. FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel won't deploy properly on doorways on a lower level if fired through a hatch. FIXED - Rauora's D.O.M. Panel won't deploy properly if fired through small hole in a wall. FIXED - Raurora's D.O.M. Panel crosshair remains visible when using Observation Tools. FIXED - Maestro's Evil Eye red laser light is improperly positioned, obstructing the player's field of view when using the camera at specific angles. USER EXPERIENCE FIXED - Incorrect message appears in the "Ankle Biter" drone skin description.Rainbow Six Siege and GTA 5 now "Playable" on Steam Deck, despite anti-cheatMar 18, 2025 - PCGamesNValve has just issued an update to its Steam Deck compatibility ratings for GTA 5 Enhanced and Rainbow Six Siege, declaring them both as Playable. That's despite both games using the same BattlEye anti-cheat software that blocks Linux gamers, like those using Valve's handheld gaming PC, from playing online with other gamers. While the Steam Deck continues to be the best handheld gaming PC for most gamers, consistency with the platform's verification ratings has been a problem for some time. While GTA 5 Enhanced's main offline mode doesn't require anti-cheat, GTA Online does, as does Rainbow Six Siege, leaving a question mark over why the rating has been changed. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: GTA 5 fastest car and bike 2025 GTA 5 Enhanced is now the worst-rated Rockstar game in the history of Steam The best open-world games 2025 The wait is over: meet Siege XMar 14, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsDuring an explosive Showcase, Siege X unveiled everything it has to offer: a new permanent 6v6 game mode, a visual overhaul of classic maps, new features that deepen the tactical gameplay of Siege and more! And it won't cost you anything extra. Current players will access new content for free, retain their progress, and receive exclusive rewards at launch on June 10! Welcome to the Siege X era! Discover Dual Front game mode! Engage in intense battles where teams push to capture enemy sectors while defending their own. For the first time, attackers and defenders unite on the same team, allowing you to create lethal combinations from 35 playable operators and face off on the biggest map yet. Respawns are also available, so be ready for anything. Watch your favorite creator for your chance to access the CLOSED BETA! More info on the website. Discover the new features REVAMPED MAPS New lighting, shadows, and 4K textures make the maps the most realistic in Rainbow Six Siege X. REINFORCED ANTI-CHEAT INITIATIVE Introducing R6 ShieldGuard, the most advanced anti-cheat system, equipped with live security updates and a stonewall reputation system. IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENTS Destructible objects like fire extinguishers, gas pipes, and metal detectors create a dangerous environment while also adding a new element of strategy. GAMEPLAY REDEFINED Run horizontally and jump around building corners with the advanced rappel navigation, and pinpoint enemy positions using the reworked audio. Learn more about all the features!'Siege 2 was never on the table': Rainbow Six Siege X director explains why the 10-year-old FPS doesn't need a sequelMar 13, 2025 - PC GamerRainbow Six Siege is part of an exclusive club of multiplayer games that have been so successful for so long that, well, it's now officially old. There have been rumblings for over a year now that Ubisoft was planning a huge, possibly sequel-sized update to its 10-year-old tactical FPS, but after the very public debacle of Overwatch 2's launch, I'm not surprised the next era of Siege won't have a '2' on it... Read more.After holding out for 10 years, Rainbow Six Siege is finally going free-to-play (kind of)Mar 13, 2025 - PC GamerOne of the last pay-to-play holdouts is laying down its sword sledgehammer. To coincide with its big year 10 refresh, Rainbow Six Siege is finally going free-to-play. Well, for the most part... Read more.Rainbow Six Siege is getting its first permanent mode in 10 years, and it throws every Siege rule out the windowMar 13, 2025 - PC GamerWhen you've been playing Rainbow Six Siege as long as I have, it's hard not to reflexively snarl at your first round of Dual Front: a new permanent, 6v6 mode coming in Year 10 Season 2... Read more.Rainbow Six Siege | Siege's future is unfolding!Mar 13, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsWatch the R6 Siege Showcase LIVE. NOW. Don't miss the start of Siege's new era. Tune in on Twitch, discover the latest updates and exclusive announcements. Watch it live on Twitch and get exclusive Twitch Drops! Don't forget to link your Twitch account in the preference center to redeem the drops. Rainbow Six: Siege Hits New All-Time High Player Count, Up 51% After Operation Chimera UpdateMar 7, 2018 - GitHypRainbow Six: Siege was last year’s biggest comeback story on Steam. Launching with a peak of only 12k players back in 2015, Ubisoft’s tactical shooter saw its player base break 100k players for the first time ever in 2017.
Now in its third year on Steam, Rainbow Six: Siege is bigger than ever. Today, R6S saw its player base rise by 51% from yesterday, hitting a new all-time peak of 176k concurrent players after releasing its biggest content update yet.
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Rainbow Six: Siege's Peak Concurrent Players on Steam via GitHyp[/caption]
The Operation Chimera content update that was responsible for the explosive growth brings two new operator characters, a co-op zombie mode called Outbreak, and has also unlocked features such as weapon attachments and all 20 of the original operators for those who purchased prior versions of the game.
2018 was already a great year for R6S with the player base increasing by 10k players in both January and February. And with interest among gamers now stronger than ever for the competitive shooter, Rainbow Six: Siege is likely to continue its growth this year and remain in Steam’s top 5 most played games right behind PUBG, Dota 2, and CS:GO.Gaming's Biggest Bombs and Best Comebacks on Steam in 2017Jan 10, 2018 - GitHyp2017 was an odd year for gaming. After most of the overhyped games that didn’t deliver in 2016, gamers weren’t as quick to jump on the hype train of new titles in 2017. As a result, only one game in 2017 broke into Steam’s top 10 most played, compared to five in 2016.
That one game? If you couldn’t guess, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which had a record-breaking year and toppled Valve's own top games, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2, to become Steam's new #1 game.
The next closest new game was Divinity: Original Sin II, which despite very positive reviews and winning multiple Game of the Year awards, only debuted at #12 with 93k players. So, what exactly happened in 2017?
Conan Exiles was the hottest new game at the start of the year. The game's open world combined with nude character models caused it to explode in popularity on Twitch, which in turn helped the player base skyrocket to a peak of 53k players back in February 2017. But Conan quickly lost momentum and saw 93% of his player base exit the game just a couple months later due to bugs, limited content, and other early access issues.
With Ubisoft’s poor track record and some of the previous year’s biggest bombs, many still had hope that their new melee brawler, For Honor, was unique enough to break the cycle. And it seemed possible after a successful beta. Sadly, For Honor went on to become 2017’s biggest flop with an even quicker player base drop-off than The Division -- falling from a peak of 71k players all the way down to an average of 1.9k players to end the year.
GitHyp predicted LawBreakers would flop based on early beta player counts and we compared it to 2016’s Battleborn. But LawBreakers ended up much worse than Battleborn’s disappointing peak of 12k players at launch. The new shooter from CliffyB peaked at 7.5k players and since has lost 99% of its player base, now struggling to break 50 concurrent players each day and often dropping down into the single digits. Publisher Nexon recently wrote the entire game off, blaming PUBG for their shooter not clicking with audiences, while most games have placed the blame on the marketing and developers at Boss Key.
Speaking of Battleborn, it too was in the news in 2017 despite its failed launched in 2016. The dying class-based shooter switched to the free-to-play model in 2017 to try and salvage the title. And sure enough, the f2p switch helped spike the player base back up to over one thousand players… but, that number quickly dropped back down to under one hundred. And just like LawBreakers, it too has since lost 99% of its player base.
Although, switching to the free-to-play model wasn’t enough to save most struggling games, there were also many success stories in 2017. The MOBA-inspired, Battlerite, started with a peak of 13k players towards the end of 2016. One year later it was struggling to break 1k players. After switching to f2p, the peak spiked at 45k players, and the arena brawler is still managing to maintain an average of over 10k concurrent players.
Ubisoft might have been responsible for 2017's biggest bomb, but they were also responsible for 2017's biggest comeback. Their competitive squad shooter, Rainbow Six: Siege, had a rough start when it was overshadowed by Ubisoft's other upcoming title, The Division, back in 2015. But after numerous tweaks, balances, and updates to the gameplay and pricing format, Siege has seen its player base continue to rise each month. In November 2015, Siege launched with a average of 7.6k players per hour. In December 2017, that number grew to an average of 69k players per hour. Siege even broke 100k players at its peak last month and is now almost always in Steam's top 5 most played games.
Payday 2 was the year's other biggest success story. The four-player co-op shooter originally launched on Steam all the way back in 2013, but the game exploded in popularity over the summer hitting a new all-time peak of 245k concurrent players after the developers gave away five million free copies. That number has since dropped, but Payday 2 has remained in Steam’s top 20 games each day pulling in an impressive average of 36k players per hour.
Other popular f2p games also set new all-time peaks in 2017. Warframe’s 'Plains of Eildon' expansion helped double its player base with 122k players. While Path of Exile saw its player base peak just short of 100k players for the first time ever after launching its most popular content update in over five years.
Even some of the previous year’s biggest bombs showed signs of life in 2017. No Man’s Sky released multiple big content updates throughout the year with its latest bringing in the most players since launch and breaking back into Steam’s top 20 most played games. Ubisoft’s The Division also came back from the dead, hitting its highest peak since December 2016 with 33k concurrent players over a free-to-play weekend in December 2017.
So, what's going to happen in 2018? With PUBG continuing to dominate at the start of the year, 2018 could already be in the same situation as 2017. Dragon Ball FighterZ will likely be the biggest fighting game launch ever on Steam, but most fighting games see their player bases decline shortly after launch, so its hype might not last outside of the FGC. And it’s not helping that some of the year’s other most anticipated games have been delayed on Steam way after their console launches (or not even confirmed to be coming to PC yet), such as in the case with Monster Hunter: World and Red Dead Redemption 2. Looks like it’s all up to you to make 2018 a great year for new PC games on Steam, Untitled Goose Game!Rainbow Six: Siege Breaks 100k Concurrent Players on Steam for the First TimeDec 9, 2017 - GitHypAfter only managing to bring in a peak of 12k concurrent players during its first weekend, Rainbow Six: Siege's launch on Steam back in December 2015 was underwhelming to say the least.
With the player counts dropping after its first week, things didn’t look good for the squad-based shooter. And to make matters worse, Ubisoft’s own upcoming launch of The Division shifted most of the publisher's marketing focus to promoting the more highly anticipated of the two Tom Clancy shooters.
But while The Division's player base started with over 100k players and overshadowed Rainbow Six, it quickly lost 93% of them 3 months after launch. Now, two years later, Siege has become Ubisoft's flagship shooter and is on the heels of surpassing The Division's all-time peak after hitting 100,048 concurrent players this weekend on Steam.
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Rainbow Six: Siege's Peak Player Counts on Steam via GitHyp[/caption]
Siege's success is due to a combination of factors, many of which Ubisoft hasn't been able to successfully pull off in any of their other recent multiplayer games. Free-to-play weekends have enticed new players, while constant waves of new updates and characters such as this weekend's 'Operation White Noise' have been enough to keep players around.
Although Rainbow Six: Siege started as a full priced $60 game, Ubisoft made the clever decision to adopt a free-to-play model with a hybrid season pass system to reduce the game's barrier to entry. Siege still costs $14.99 for the base game (which doesn't include all of the Operator characters), but Ubisoft's handling of the tiered systems has been embraced by the community with Very Positive recent and overall reviews on Steam.
The increase in Siege's player base has even been enough to help it surpass Team Fortress 2 and become the #4 most played game on Steam. But Rainbow Siege: Siege still has a long way to go before it topples Steam's current top squad shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which pulls in peaks of 400-500k concurrent players at #3 on Steam.Rainbow Six: Siege’s Playerbase Has More Than Tripled Since LaunchJun 5, 2017 - GitHypOver the past year, Ubisoft has seen drastic drop-offs in the playerbases for almost all of their popular new releases. As we first reported last June, the most shocking of these declines was their best-selling game ever, The Division, losing 93% of its players in just the first 3 months. And since then, we’ve seen Watch Dogs 2, For Honor, and Ghost Recon: Wildlands all follow the same trend.
However, the same cannot be said about Ubisoft’s competitive shooter, Rainbow Six: Siege, which has seen its playerbase triple (even quintuple at one point) in size since its launch back in December 2015.
Unlike Ubisoft’s more recent top 2016 and 2017 titles, Siege didn’t have the strongest debut when it peaked at 12k players over its first weekend. This lead to Ubisoft being quick to announce a 40% spike in players right after releasing the “Skull Rain” DLC last August… a number which quickly fell back down as the game struggled in its early days to build a fanbase.
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Rainbow Six: Siege's Average Player Count per Hour via GitHyp[/caption]
But Ubisoft’s continued support of Siege with new content, balance updates, price reductions, and free weekend promotions have all contributed to the game’s growth. The developer’s big Year 2 “Operation: Velvet Shell” update combined with a free-to-play weekend back in February brought in a new record high of 65k concurrent players – a number large enough to also help Siege break into Steam’s top 5 most played games for the first time.
Since that record-setting weekend, Siege’s numbers have slightly declined, but Rainbow Six’s future still looks bright for both Ubisoft and fans. Recent player counts are on average higher than they ever were before the Velvet Shell update. And Siege is constantly in Steam’s top 10 most played games with peaks around 40k concurrent players and averages around 30k players per hour each weekend.
With an upcoming Steam Summer Sale, where the game is surely to be discounted even further, and plenty of new content on the way (as Ubisoft has shared with the Year Two Roadmap) Rainbow Six: Siege’s playerbase is expected to show even more growth in the near future.Ubisoft Reports a 40% Spike in Rainbow Six: Siege Players After New Content ReleasesAug 17, 2016 - GitHypBack in June, we reported that The Division had lost a shocking 93% of its playerbase since launching on Steam. We even compared The Division's plummeting player counts to Ubisoft's other Tom Clancy-inspired online shooter, Rainbow Six: Siege, and mentioned that Ubisoft’s underdog was actually outperforming their “fastest selling game ever” and was even showing signs of growth.
While our story made headlines on the eve of E3, Ubisoft stayed silent and spent gaming’s biggest week of the year focusing on hyping up their other upcoming titles. But now, two months later, Ubisoft is boasting about Rainbow Six's numbers and how more people are currently playing than at launch.
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Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Siege Player Count Data[/caption]
Ubisoft recently shared the above graph of Siege’s player activity since launch with IGN and we can confirm that based on GitHyp's own hourly player data that the Operation: Skull Rain DLC and free-to-play weekend did in fact combine to double the game’s original daily peaks of PC players on Steam recorded back in January.
Unfortunately, while it's good to see Ubisoft taking a step in the right direction and reporting player counts, their quick report didn't give actual player count numbers and only focused on the launch hype... and now two weeks later, the player counts on Steam have already dropped back down significantly. It's been so much of a decrease that the 40% increase they originally reported to IGN is now almost back down to 0% with an average player count that has returned to close to what it was in January of around 13k players per hour.
[caption id="attachment_193039" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
GitHyp's Rainbow Six: Siege Player Count per Hour Data[/caption]
Still, the new content and changes being made to the game by the devs certainly proves that there’s a strong interest among both new and old players that’s keeping Rainbow Six: Siege in Steam’s daily top 20 games with no signs of it falling off drastically any time soon.
Meanwhile, The Division is on the verge of falling out of Steam's top 100 games with only about 1/6 of the average players per hour that Siege has now.
Rainbow Six: Siege's Peak Concurrent Players on Steam via GitHyp[/caption]
The Operation Chimera content update that was responsible for the explosive growth brings two new operator characters, a co-op zombie mode called Outbreak, and has also unlocked features such as weapon attachments and all 20 of the original operators for those who purchased prior versions of the game.
2018 was already a great year for R6S with the player base increasing by 10k players in both January and February. And with interest among gamers now stronger than ever for the competitive shooter, Rainbow Six: Siege is likely to continue its growth this year and remain in Steam’s top 5 most played games right behind PUBG, Dota 2, and CS:GO.Gaming's Biggest Bombs and Best Comebacks on Steam in 2017Jan 10, 2018 - GitHyp2017 was an odd year for gaming. After most of the overhyped games that didn’t deliver in 2016, gamers weren’t as quick to jump on the hype train of new titles in 2017. As a result, only one game in 2017 broke into Steam’s top 10 most played, compared to five in 2016.
That one game? If you couldn’t guess, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which had a record-breaking year and toppled Valve's own top games, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2, to become Steam's new #1 game.
The next closest new game was Divinity: Original Sin II, which despite very positive reviews and winning multiple Game of the Year awards, only debuted at #12 with 93k players. So, what exactly happened in 2017?
Conan Exiles was the hottest new game at the start of the year. The game's open world combined with nude character models caused it to explode in popularity on Twitch, which in turn helped the player base skyrocket to a peak of 53k players back in February 2017. But Conan quickly lost momentum and saw 93% of his player base exit the game just a couple months later due to bugs, limited content, and other early access issues.
With Ubisoft’s poor track record and some of the previous year’s biggest bombs, many still had hope that their new melee brawler, For Honor, was unique enough to break the cycle. And it seemed possible after a successful beta. Sadly, For Honor went on to become 2017’s biggest flop with an even quicker player base drop-off than The Division -- falling from a peak of 71k players all the way down to an average of 1.9k players to end the year.
GitHyp predicted LawBreakers would flop based on early beta player counts and we compared it to 2016’s Battleborn. But LawBreakers ended up much worse than Battleborn’s disappointing peak of 12k players at launch. The new shooter from CliffyB peaked at 7.5k players and since has lost 99% of its player base, now struggling to break 50 concurrent players each day and often dropping down into the single digits. Publisher Nexon recently wrote the entire game off, blaming PUBG for their shooter not clicking with audiences, while most games have placed the blame on the marketing and developers at Boss Key.
Speaking of Battleborn, it too was in the news in 2017 despite its failed launched in 2016. The dying class-based shooter switched to the free-to-play model in 2017 to try and salvage the title. And sure enough, the f2p switch helped spike the player base back up to over one thousand players… but, that number quickly dropped back down to under one hundred. And just like LawBreakers, it too has since lost 99% of its player base.
Although, switching to the free-to-play model wasn’t enough to save most struggling games, there were also many success stories in 2017. The MOBA-inspired, Battlerite, started with a peak of 13k players towards the end of 2016. One year later it was struggling to break 1k players. After switching to f2p, the peak spiked at 45k players, and the arena brawler is still managing to maintain an average of over 10k concurrent players.
Ubisoft might have been responsible for 2017's biggest bomb, but they were also responsible for 2017's biggest comeback. Their competitive squad shooter, Rainbow Six: Siege, had a rough start when it was overshadowed by Ubisoft's other upcoming title, The Division, back in 2015. But after numerous tweaks, balances, and updates to the gameplay and pricing format, Siege has seen its player base continue to rise each month. In November 2015, Siege launched with a average of 7.6k players per hour. In December 2017, that number grew to an average of 69k players per hour. Siege even broke 100k players at its peak last month and is now almost always in Steam's top 5 most played games.
Payday 2 was the year's other biggest success story. The four-player co-op shooter originally launched on Steam all the way back in 2013, but the game exploded in popularity over the summer hitting a new all-time peak of 245k concurrent players after the developers gave away five million free copies. That number has since dropped, but Payday 2 has remained in Steam’s top 20 games each day pulling in an impressive average of 36k players per hour.
Other popular f2p games also set new all-time peaks in 2017. Warframe’s 'Plains of Eildon' expansion helped double its player base with 122k players. While Path of Exile saw its player base peak just short of 100k players for the first time ever after launching its most popular content update in over five years.
Even some of the previous year’s biggest bombs showed signs of life in 2017. No Man’s Sky released multiple big content updates throughout the year with its latest bringing in the most players since launch and breaking back into Steam’s top 20 most played games. Ubisoft’s The Division also came back from the dead, hitting its highest peak since December 2016 with 33k concurrent players over a free-to-play weekend in December 2017.
So, what's going to happen in 2018? With PUBG continuing to dominate at the start of the year, 2018 could already be in the same situation as 2017. Dragon Ball FighterZ will likely be the biggest fighting game launch ever on Steam, but most fighting games see their player bases decline shortly after launch, so its hype might not last outside of the FGC. And it’s not helping that some of the year’s other most anticipated games have been delayed on Steam way after their console launches (or not even confirmed to be coming to PC yet), such as in the case with Monster Hunter: World and Red Dead Redemption 2. Looks like it’s all up to you to make 2018 a great year for new PC games on Steam, Untitled Goose Game!Rainbow Six: Siege Breaks 100k Concurrent Players on Steam for the First TimeDec 9, 2017 - GitHypAfter only managing to bring in a peak of 12k concurrent players during its first weekend, Rainbow Six: Siege's launch on Steam back in December 2015 was underwhelming to say the least.
With the player counts dropping after its first week, things didn’t look good for the squad-based shooter. And to make matters worse, Ubisoft’s own upcoming launch of The Division shifted most of the publisher's marketing focus to promoting the more highly anticipated of the two Tom Clancy shooters.
But while The Division's player base started with over 100k players and overshadowed Rainbow Six, it quickly lost 93% of them 3 months after launch. Now, two years later, Siege has become Ubisoft's flagship shooter and is on the heels of surpassing The Division's all-time peak after hitting 100,048 concurrent players this weekend on Steam.
[caption id="attachment_309285" align="aligncenter" width="786"] Rainbow Six: Siege's Peak Player Counts on Steam via GitHyp[/caption]
Siege's success is due to a combination of factors, many of which Ubisoft hasn't been able to successfully pull off in any of their other recent multiplayer games. Free-to-play weekends have enticed new players, while constant waves of new updates and characters such as this weekend's 'Operation White Noise' have been enough to keep players around.
Although Rainbow Six: Siege started as a full priced $60 game, Ubisoft made the clever decision to adopt a free-to-play model with a hybrid season pass system to reduce the game's barrier to entry. Siege still costs $14.99 for the base game (which doesn't include all of the Operator characters), but Ubisoft's handling of the tiered systems has been embraced by the community with Very Positive recent and overall reviews on Steam.
The increase in Siege's player base has even been enough to help it surpass Team Fortress 2 and become the #4 most played game on Steam. But Rainbow Siege: Siege still has a long way to go before it topples Steam's current top squad shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which pulls in peaks of 400-500k concurrent players at #3 on Steam.Rainbow Six: Siege’s Playerbase Has More Than Tripled Since LaunchJun 5, 2017 - GitHypOver the past year, Ubisoft has seen drastic drop-offs in the playerbases for almost all of their popular new releases. As we first reported last June, the most shocking of these declines was their best-selling game ever, The Division, losing 93% of its players in just the first 3 months. And since then, we’ve seen Watch Dogs 2, For Honor, and Ghost Recon: Wildlands all follow the same trend.
However, the same cannot be said about Ubisoft’s competitive shooter, Rainbow Six: Siege, which has seen its playerbase triple (even quintuple at one point) in size since its launch back in December 2015.
Unlike Ubisoft’s more recent top 2016 and 2017 titles, Siege didn’t have the strongest debut when it peaked at 12k players over its first weekend. This lead to Ubisoft being quick to announce a 40% spike in players right after releasing the “Skull Rain” DLC last August… a number which quickly fell back down as the game struggled in its early days to build a fanbase.
[caption id="attachment_268641" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Rainbow Six: Siege's Average Player Count per Hour via GitHyp[/caption]
But Ubisoft’s continued support of Siege with new content, balance updates, price reductions, and free weekend promotions have all contributed to the game’s growth. The developer’s big Year 2 “Operation: Velvet Shell” update combined with a free-to-play weekend back in February brought in a new record high of 65k concurrent players – a number large enough to also help Siege break into Steam’s top 5 most played games for the first time.
Since that record-setting weekend, Siege’s numbers have slightly declined, but Rainbow Six’s future still looks bright for both Ubisoft and fans. Recent player counts are on average higher than they ever were before the Velvet Shell update. And Siege is constantly in Steam’s top 10 most played games with peaks around 40k concurrent players and averages around 30k players per hour each weekend.
With an upcoming Steam Summer Sale, where the game is surely to be discounted even further, and plenty of new content on the way (as Ubisoft has shared with the Year Two Roadmap) Rainbow Six: Siege’s playerbase is expected to show even more growth in the near future.Ubisoft Reports a 40% Spike in Rainbow Six: Siege Players After New Content ReleasesAug 17, 2016 - GitHypBack in June, we reported that The Division had lost a shocking 93% of its playerbase since launching on Steam. We even compared The Division's plummeting player counts to Ubisoft's other Tom Clancy-inspired online shooter, Rainbow Six: Siege, and mentioned that Ubisoft’s underdog was actually outperforming their “fastest selling game ever” and was even showing signs of growth.
While our story made headlines on the eve of E3, Ubisoft stayed silent and spent gaming’s biggest week of the year focusing on hyping up their other upcoming titles. But now, two months later, Ubisoft is boasting about Rainbow Six's numbers and how more people are currently playing than at launch.
[caption id="attachment_193038" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Siege Player Count Data[/caption]
Ubisoft recently shared the above graph of Siege’s player activity since launch with IGN and we can confirm that based on GitHyp's own hourly player data that the Operation: Skull Rain DLC and free-to-play weekend did in fact combine to double the game’s original daily peaks of PC players on Steam recorded back in January.
Unfortunately, while it's good to see Ubisoft taking a step in the right direction and reporting player counts, their quick report didn't give actual player count numbers and only focused on the launch hype... and now two weeks later, the player counts on Steam have already dropped back down significantly. It's been so much of a decrease that the 40% increase they originally reported to IGN is now almost back down to 0% with an average player count that has returned to close to what it was in January of around 13k players per hour.
[caption id="attachment_193039" align="aligncenter" width="800"] GitHyp's Rainbow Six: Siege Player Count per Hour Data[/caption]
Still, the new content and changes being made to the game by the devs certainly proves that there’s a strong interest among both new and old players that’s keeping Rainbow Six: Siege in Steam’s daily top 20 games with no signs of it falling off drastically any time soon.
Meanwhile, The Division is on the verge of falling out of Steam's top 100 games with only about 1/6 of the average players per hour that Siege has now.
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