Payday 3, the much-anticipated sequel to one of the most popular co-op shooters ever, had a full release on September 21 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows. Moreover, it had three days of early access for a limited number of users, which developer Starbreeze termed Play Early, helping it rise into the top 20 most popular games list between September 18 and September 21.
Payday is a series that has built a cult following among fans for providing the "thrill of a perfectly planned and executed heist." These high-octane, co-op FPS experiences seldom have equals, with the newest offerings seeing users stepping out of retirement to return to a life of crime with the Payday Gang.
So far, Payday 3 has received mixed reviews so far with a 6/10 rating on Steam, where only 41% of the customer feedback has been positive. Moreover, many users, alongside reviews by popular media outlets, have pointed to the "useless matchmaking' feature and a general lack of content compared to its predecessor as major negatives.
Of course, there is time for the devs to come up with bug fixes and right whatever wrongs were seen at launch, but franchise fans are definitely not satisfied over the first days of play. While at it, they will also need to work on the onboarding process for new players, which is anything but smooth, as has been made clear online.
Overall, the newest title has recorded 2.2M Hours Watched and 89.7K Peak Viewers in the first four days of its availability. This has pushed it into the 22nd place for most watched games between September 18 and September 21, with its ranking in the most popular leaderboard being higher at 19th.
Recapping Payday 3's early access phase
The shooter game's Play Early period, which lasted from September 19 to September 20, registered 1.7M HW and 89.7K PV. Of course, with such a niche genre that means it banks as much on fan loyalty as the quality of its gameplay, Payday 3 was never going to compete with the other biggies to release this year, including Diablo IV, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. However, it has still performed relatively well and caught the attention of quite a few prominent streamers who have given it a go.
What did help its numbers was the fact that users could gain access to unique rewards when it launched simply by playing the previous iteration, Payday 2. All they had to do was complete the challenges and claim the items instantly, although some of them required quite a bit of skill as the developer didn't want to make it some random cookie-cutter giveaway.
For details on what challenges were to be completed to unlock certain rewards, readers can click here. Those who played the second installment and have not yet claimed these rewards can also check out the page linked above to see what they have unlocked and how they can redeem these prizes.
Let's talk about the streamers now
French sensation Locklear was the channel that streamed the game the most during this period, hitting 88K HW, which was 14.7% higher than the next-best entry. Speaking of second, the highly-followed JenFoxxx was next, with the American also busy playing another notable recent release, Starfield.
Auronplay, one of the most followed channels on the purple platform and one of its most famous personalities, was third, followed by Brazilian superstar alanzoka, who has also been playing a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. An Asian name rounds off the top five, as Taiwan's 餐餐自由配 — known for blessing fans with playthroughs of various games — notched 46K HW.
The rest of the top ten included names from North America, Europe, and Asia, which shows just how widespread the popularity of this series is. That it has been able to attract prominent internet stars from across the globe is a testament to the work done by the publishers in making it a quality offering that users love to get together and enjoy.
Unsurprisingly, 50% of the content on the game came from English-speaking Twitch streamers, with only Spanish hitting double figures (10%) alongside it. German was the third most followed language, followed by French and Russian, clearly showing that the game is pretty popular among North American and European gamers.
However, the most watched Chinese and Korean content creators put up better numbers than their German and Russian counterparts, so there is an argument to be made that these Asian markets are pretty important to Payday 3 as well. Considering that audiences from these regions love shooting and co-op games, these numbers are a pretty accurate representation of where the game is most sought after.
Payday 3 also ended as the 14th most popular game on Twitch based on peak channels, which looks at the maximum number of concurrently streaming channels for any product. Interestingly, another legendary franchise that has gone through some changes, EA Sports FC 24, had its early access start today, and it has been pretty popular among gamers, affecting the dynamics of games and streamer habits this week.
It will be intriguing to see where the game is one-week post-release, as that will give an accurate picture of how well it has done compared to other releases this year. However, for now, it is safe to say that Starbreeze has done a good job of meeting expectations and managing the hype around a game that has big boots to fill considering what came before in the series.
