'This really doesn't look promising': Concord PC players are having a hard time finding matches thanks to ridiculously low player counts

Character looking up and smiling
(Image credit: Firewalk Studios)

During Concord's early access, it was pretty hard for PC players to find games without queuing in console lobbies. At the time, I gave Concord the benefit of the doubt, deciding to chalk it up to a slow early access. Unfortunately, things haven't gotten better since the game became available for everyone. 

There are currently 96 players in Concord. It's off-peak hours, but having a 24-hour peak of 276 and an all-time peak of 697 on SteamDB is pretty damning—it's been a tepid first week on PC for sure. There are no public records for player counts on PlayStation, so this is really all we have to go on right now regarding Concord's popularity. 

PC players have reported that long queue times are very much a problem for those not queuing alongside console players. "Just waited eight minutes for matchmaking, and then it timed out," one player says. "I love the game and want to play it. Unfortunately, I can't wait eight minutes plus between games. [So] I decided to play something else and come back on peak hours. This really doesn't look promising at all." 

I've also had some pretty long wait times on Concord over last weekend—I got to about seven minutes before I found a game. This isn't awful, and I've played plenty of other games that can have similarly long queues, but the difference is that I'm not sure Concord is worth the wait. The games are quite fun, if a little chaotic, but they aren't outstanding, which is probably why players are finding the $40/£35 price tag hard to stomach. 

I've played a few games, and while I enjoy some of the heroes like Haymar and Daw, most of the matches feel indistinguishable, and the maps seem too big for their own good. You spend a lot of time walking around looking for fights, and then when you find one, everyone's abilities blend into a big, chaotic ball of damage. There's more to Concord than just the fights, as the cosmetics are quite cool, but that doesn't mean it's worth the price tag. 

Criticism over the upfront cost appeared the moment it was announced, and some players still think the answer to its launch woes is shedding the price and going F2P "They need to go F2P, this game won't last the month, they can't wait." Something like this could help bolster numbers, although there wasn't massive interest around the free beta either. 

Even if the F2P route could help the dwindling player numbers, there's still a good chunk of the playerbase that doesn't want Firewalk Studios to make the shift to F2P. "F2P is super predatory and lives off kids' parents' credit cards," one player says. "Concord costs $40, and everything post-launch is free! There won't be battle passes, and every additional map and hero is free!" 

F2P definitely has its drawbacks, but when there are so many alternatives available at no extra cost, it seems like a misstep to try and subvert that. Some people say that this shows confidence, but it's not a great business model if you want to cast your net wide and encourage loads of people to play your game. If I had to choose between tons of free and fantastic team shooters or take a chance on one for £35, I'd go for the free games every time, and many would be just as good, if not better. 

Elie Gould
News Writer

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

Read more
marvel rivals
Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: 'sweaty' teamplay vs. casual fun
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'
Marvel Rivals units - Three superheroes
GDC's annual State of the Game Industry survey reveals 1/3 of 'triple-A developers' are working on live service games
midnight murder club
'The point is to be generous': This $20 FPS releasing next month is trying something new—giving away a full version of the game
The Thing in Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals starts 2025 by clobberin' the most played charts, hitting over 640,000 players on Steam alone
A busy marketplace in The Bazaar.
The Bazaar could be the future of autobattlers, if it stops strangling itself to death with its own microtransactions
Latest in FPS
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide adds a psychic horde murderzone mode and makes Ogryns even smashier
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Fragpunk
Somebody finally figured out casual Counter-Strike
Latest in News
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'