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Artifact saw a mysterious player count jump over new year, six years after Valve’s trading card game died offExhumed?
Exhumed?
Image credit:Valve
Image credit:Valve
Last June, Valve’s trading card gameArtifactClassic peaked at 78 players. November was a little rosier for the abandonedmultiplayergame, with a monthly peak of 1,028. Then, on New Year’s Day, that number jumped to 11,900 players on Steam - its second highest concurrent besides launch. Soon after, they vanished. Who were these mysterious shufflers, flocking to the deserted, echoing halls of Valve’s disastrous flop like your mate who uses the word ‘liminal’ too much to a dead shopping center? Forbes,who first reported on the phenomena, don’t know.No one knows. Somebody might actually know but writing ‘no one knows’ makes it more dramatic. Let’s dig in.
Introducing ArtifactWatch on YouTube
Introducing Artifact
This latest 24 peak of 12,500 players echoes a uptick last December of around 14,000, which lasted but a single day. Forbes speculate that the reason is “likely bots” in the absence of any notable community or influencer activity on Twitch, YouTube, or similar. There’s no interest in Artifact’s cards on the Marketplace, say Forbes, so unless Valve is hiding somethingHalf Life 3related, there’s no clear reason why this should be happening. Unless…
If you’re interested in diving into Artifact’s deflating history, Will Partin’sbrilliant piecefor Waypoint remains the definitive chronicle. The game ceased development and went free-to-playback in 2021, with Valve saying “we haven’t managed to get the active player numbers to a level that justifies further development at this time."
Valve’s newest multiplayer offering isDeadlock, which Matt Coxwrote about here.
