Steam Charts Don’t Measure Fun Says Splitgate Dev As Splitgate Arena Reloaded Struggles To Gain Momentum

On December 17, 2025, 1047 Games pushed the Splitgate franchise into a second reset, relaunching Splitgate 2 under a new name, Splitgate: Arena Reloaded. The relaunch was framed as a course correction and a fusion of what worked in the original Splitgate with lessons learned from the sequel’s rough reception, coming after a messy stretch of headlines that included a high profile promise to “make FPS great again” that later became its own controversy. That earlier moment was captured by IGN report on Splitgate 2 director controversy and apology.

But if you missed the relaunch entirely, the numbers suggest you were not alone. Based on public tracking SteamDB charts, Arena Reloaded has struggled to consistently clear 1000 concurrent players, a threshold that is not a verdict on quality but is absolutely a visibility and momentum problem for a free to play multiplayer shooter trying to rebuild mindshare in a hyper competitive market.

Two days after multiple outlets highlighted those low Steam concurrency trends, 1047 Games published a statement on the official Splitgate account on X. The caption reads like a press header, “1047 Games Responds to Recent Steam Charts Conversations,” and the opening line goes straight for the core argument: Steam charts do not measure fun.

1047 Games Responds to Recent Steam Charts Conversations pic.twitter.com/ir9W0BjFHo

— SPLITGATE: Arena Reloaded (@Splitgate) January 6, 2026

The studio’s point is fundamentally valid. Steam concurrency is one number, on one platform, at one moment. Arena Reloaded is also on Epic Games Store, and consoles like PlayStation and Xbox do not publish comparable real time concurrency in a way the public can verify. If a large share of the active base lives off Steam, Steam charts alone will understate the true footprint. In multiplayer coverage, it is always worth separating data you can see from the full picture you cannot see.

However, there is a second layer here that matters for anyone reading this as a live service performance signal rather than a community debate. In practical go to market terms, Steam is still the loudest public storefront scoreboard for PC multiplayer. If a relaunch is truly thriving on other platforms, most studios do not feel compelled to respond to Steam chatter this quickly, in this tone, with a statement that directly tries to reset the narrative. The timing and framing suggests the team is actively managing perception, which is a rational move for any live service title, but it also reinforces that there is real concern around momentum, at least on the public facing platform that fuels the broadest conversation.

The statement also tries to pivot attention back to product development and to the community shaping what Arena Reloaded will become, including upcoming content like Arena Royale. That messaging is a classic live service posture: acknowledge the criticism, contextualize the metric, spotlight the roadmap, invite new players in, and keep the conversation focused on playing rather than watching charts. It is not inherently cynical, but it is undeniably a retention and reacquisition play.

The uncomfortable truth is that both realities can coexist. Steam charts do not measure fun, and they do not capture console plus Epic. At the same time, consistently low Steam concurrency can still indicate weak discovery, limited reactivation of lapsed players, and difficulty building social gravity, especially for a game whose loop depends on matchmaking health and content cadence. Even if the game is perfectly playable with a smaller population, the relaunch narrative was not just about being playable, it was about reigniting the brand.

If you are rooting for Splitgate, the most productive takeaway is not to doomscroll charts, but to look for leading indicators in the coming weeks. Does the relaunch cadence deliver meaningful updates fast enough. Does Arena Royale actually land as a compelling hook. Does the game get creator traction and social clips again. Those are the levers that move multiplayer recoveries, far more than arguing whether Steam concurrency is fair.

Are you currently playing Splitgate Arena Reloaded on Steam, Epic, PlayStation, or Xbox, and do you think relaunching under a new name can realistically rebuild a shooter’s momentum in 2026?