What does success seem like?

Regardless of already having the repute of ‘simply one other hero shooter’, Highguard has been a speaking level since its announcement on the finish of 2025. Turnover for the sport’s launch has been fast, launching simply over a month later, and we will lastly see what all of the fuss is about.

In some ways, Highguard has proven shades of unsuccessful hero shooters of the previous, and with all of the competitors, it’s an extremely troublesome style to get a foothold in. So, after all of the drama surrounding the sport, the query arises of whether or not Highguard generally is a success, and what success would even realistically seem like.

It’s simple to only name Highguard one other hero shooter, however it’s making an attempt to do issues in another way from different video games within the style. It’s 3v3, moderately than the standard 5v5 or 6v6 format, that includes a mixture of gunplay and magic. The size of the sport’s map is one other distinctive function, permitting gamers to make use of mounts to journey throughout a big, open space with big siege towers to assault.

A foremost a part of the Highguard’s advertising and marketing is that the studio behind it, Wildlight Leisure, was based by veterans of Respawn Leisure. These veterans had been a part of Apex Legends’ improvement, a wildly profitable hero shooter that Wildlight appears to need to replicate.  

Whereas many have been dismissive of Highguard, it grew to become a controversial title the second it was introduced. The timing of the Highguard Recreation Awards reveal trailer was a significant component on this.

The 2025 Recreation Awards was a showcase of distinctive, inventive excellence, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 breaking data for the variety of awards received. It was additionally an illustration of how this was missing within the aggressive multiplayer scene, since single-player video games dominated the awards and all one of the best bulletins.

Whereas there have been loads of huge titles to be introduced, Larian’s Divinity was the largest of the bunch. After the astounding success of Baldur’s Gate 3, no matter Larian made subsequent can be big, but this was not the title that closed the present. Highguard was the large announcement that Geoff Keighley saved up his sleeve, but it surely fell flat instantly.

Comparisons to the monumental failure that was Harmony had been made on the evening. It was a controversial choice, a lot in order that, regardless that Highguard’s advertising and marketing remained quiet after the trailer dropped, the net buzz was palpable.

With the sport now out, a lot have gone to voice their opinion, and it hasn’t been fairly viewing. After lower than 24 hours post-release (as of writing), there have been over 14,000 critiques on the Highguard Steam web page, and the sport sits at Principally Adverse critiques, with solely 32% giving a thumbs up.

These critiques echo some comparable messages:

Some have acknowledged that they’ve discovered the sport enjoyable, and the gunplay has hardly ever been a criticism, though it hasn’t been all that praised both. It appears like the sport’s scope is smaller than the net buzz and a spotlight it acquired.

Highguard began very robust with its participant numbers, in response to SteamDB. It managed a peak of 97,249 inside the first couple of hours, however round 12 hours after that peak, the sport had round 8,000 gamers, displaying a 90% lower.

On condition that Highguard is a free, live-service title, it wants gamers to stay round, and the way the participant rely will look in its first month might be very important. Clearly, it must do higher than the title it has usually been in comparison with, Harmony, which was famously lifeless on launch, however that needs to be seen because the naked minimal.

Success would additionally imply making an attempt to be part of the 2026 esports scene in some capability. Esports video games can usually take a while to correctly domesticate, however Highguard might want to achieve and preserve a large viewers to have a shot at making an influence, competitively. This received’t be simple, contemplating all of the competitors within the hero shooter style, and it received’t be made any simpler in future with Valve’s Impasse being the closest factor to a assured success.

It isn’t practical to count on Highguard to compete with the likes of Overwatch 2, Marvel Rivals, Apex Legends, VALORANT, and so forth, not less than not any time quickly. Nonetheless, this primary month might be telling, and if it could preserve its head above the ten,000 gamers for a every day peak, whereas listening to participant suggestions, it might carve out its personal area of interest within the style.

From the appears of largely adverse critiques, it is going to be a mission that Wildlight should preserve shaping post-launch, if it actually believes in it. It’s unlikely that Highguard would be the genre-defining title that Geoff Keighley has regularly insisted it deserves to be, given its rocky begin, however it’s removed from the monumental failure that Harmony was.

Whereas the Recreation Awards Highguard trailer bought the phrase out concerning the recreation, it additionally created a buzz that has to date harm greater than helped. Highguard has the beginnings of a playerbase, if its Steam numbers are something to go by, however sustaining it is going to be robust amid a adverse assessment storm.

This received’t be a straightforward job for Wildlight Leisure, and it might want to make important enhancements to the sport to maintain it going after a turbulent launch. It’s troublesome to see Highguard being held in the identical regard as one thing like Apex Legends, though it isn’t one other Harmony, which couldn’t even get 1,000 gamers at its peak. 

Highguard doesn’t seem like it is going to be the following massive factor within the style, however with a troublesome highway forward, it has an opportunity to carve out its personal area of interest, nonetheless unlikely.