Did Armored Core’s Ranked Match update spoil the fun for PvP players? User points out decrease in players after 1.05 update

As once explained by Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon’s director Masaru Yamamura, the cult mech series’ latest entry is focused predominantly on its singleplayer mode, while its “no bells and whistles online versus mode” is considered to be a bonus for the hardcore fans (Source: GameSpot). However, part of Armored Core 6’s hardcore PvP player base may have been deterred by the game’s 1.05 update from December last year. Content creator Maeda suggests this possibility in a recent analysis of concurrent player data. 

At launch, Armored Core 6 featured 1v1 and 3v3 multiplayer modes in which players competed in an arena to determine the superior build and pilot. Update 1.05, released on December 19, expanded the game’s PvP mode with ranked online matches as well as a ranked leaderboard. While this sudden addition came as big news to Armored Core’s PvP player base, concurrent player Steam data may suggest that the game’s competitive scene took a dip following the update. 

In the two months following Armored Core 6’s release day, the game’s peak concurrent players decreased from approximately 150,000 to 15,000. One month later, on November 1st, the number had decreased to 5,437. In their analysis, content creator Maeda takes this 5,437 from November 1 as a reference value to gauge fluctuations in AC 6’s PvP player base. This is because they consider the rapid drops before that point to be largely caused by newcomers completing their runs of the singleplayer campaign without moving on to PvP or dropping the game midway.  

From this 5,437 point onward, the rate of decline in concurrent players is much more gradual. Then, December sees a one-day 9000+ spike in players coinciding with the 1.05 update, but the following days up until January record a steady decrease in players. This continues all the way to a busier period from February 6 to 11. From February 9 to the 11, the number of peak concurrent players rises impressively to 5,800+, but as this is directly related to Bandai Namco putting the game on a 30% sale starting on February 9, Maeda concludes that the figures seen from February 6 to 8 (between 2500 and 3000 players) are the “maximum peak potential of the game following the 1.05 update.” Ever since that peak, Armored Core 6’s concurrent players gradually dropped and are currently fluctuating between 1,700 and 2,000 players. 

While noting that these figures are not a definitive sign, Maeda hypothesizes that the drastic change in environment brought about by Armored Core 6’s 1.05 update may have contributed towards dwindling number of competitive players.