Embark Studios has posted a thank you message to its playerbase for THE FINALS, revealing it has accrued more than 10 million players since its launch on Dec. 7.
The message, shared on the official X (formerly known as Twitter) account on Dec. 22, doesn’t provide any information on what Embark has in store for players in the new year. But over 10 million players in two weeks is an impressive milestone—and one worth celebrating. Especially considering THE FINALS is an original IP and is Embark’s first proper video game.
How well the game is performing on consoles isn’t clear since there’s no reliable way to check player counts on PlayStation and Xbox. On Steam, however, we can see that THE FINALS has remained consistently popular since its launch. The average player count has regularly dipped to below 100,000 players but always seems to bounce back up around 120,000 to 140,000. It’s also still within the top 20 sellers list, beating out the likes of The Sims 4 and The Elder Scrolls Online.
It’s a strong start for THE FINALS, but what’s important is what comes next. Player counts for live service games such as this typically dwindle soon after release, so the question is what will Embark do to attract new players and maintain the dedicated fanbase it currently has? There have been post-launch patches to fix issues and tweak aspects of the game, including the matchmaking, but there are yet to be any substantial content updates, barring some free winter-themed cosmetics.
Admittedly, it may be too early for anything like that, but a lack of new additions can risk boring players. Surprisingly, Embark has opted not to share any roadmap to at least confirm or tease future gameplay modes, maps, or anything of the sort. “We better hold off with that sort of stuff and make promises we can keep,” creative director Gustav Tilleby told Axios on Dec. 18. This approach makes sense since promising content updates, only to delay or cancel them risks upsetting players and driving them away.
