Left 4 Dead 2 Has Nearly Twice As Many Players As Back 4 Blood On Steam

Last month Turtle Rock Studios released Back 4 Blood, the so-called Left 4 Dead spiritual successor we’ve all been waiting for. 

Sure enough, Back 4 Blood is so like Turtle Rock’s previous zombie slaying games in so many ways, that if you told me it was Left 4 Dead 3, I’d probably believe you. Players take control of characters with different sets of skills to explore and survive across a series of levels filled with undead hordes of varying degrees of nasty. It’s exactly the kind of sequel we might have expected - although apparently not everyone sees it that way. 

One of the more unintended consequences of Back 4 Blood’s release is that it seems to have reawakened a passion for Left 4 Dead 2. Specifically, rather than go play Back 4 Blood, gamers are flocking in droves to the 2009 zombie shooter instead. Oops.

As spotted by Kotaku over Halloween, Left 4 Dead 2 had over 10,000 more players than Back 4 Blood according to Steam metrics. This wasn’t a fluke, either. At the time of writing, SteamDB tells me that Left 4 Dead 2 currently has 16,500 active players. Back 4 Blood has just under 10,000. 

This comes with some caveats, of course. Left 4 Dead 2 is obviously cheaper on Steam than the newer Back 4 Blood, for one thing. There’s also the fact that Back 4 Blood is also available on consoles. No doubt many players will be on PlayStation and Xbox. Oh, it’s available for free via Xbox Game Pass for subscribers. That probably accounts for a good chunk of the players. 

Still, let’s look at this not as a mark of failure on the part of Back 4 Blood (which is properly excellent, by the way), but as a testament to the enduring power of Left 4 Dead 2. People cannot get enough of that game, and I’m not sure they ever will. 

Topics: Steam, Valve