Industry experts believe that the reason for Highguard's failure is the high intensity of the matches

Industry experts believe the cause of Highguard's failure is the high intensity of matches

The game Highguard launched about a month ago, and people still can't stop talking about its stumble. SteamDB shows current concurrent players under 400; even over the past 24 hours the peak hasn't cracked 600. Numbers like that make a quiet story louder.

Former developer Alex Graner points at one culprit: an over-commitment to competitiveness. Highguard leaned hard into a 3 vs 3 (3v3) setup — tight, fast, unforgiving. That format asks for precise movement and sharp aim; miss either, and wins become rare, especially when teammates aren't synced. Put bluntly: it's a team-heavy arena that punishes solo mistakes.

Winning usually hinges on smooth team play and near-constant comms (i.e., players talking and coordinating). That pressure squeezes out relaxed, pick-up matches — the kind many folks want when they try something new. Add a pile of rules and multiple stages, and newcomers get a steeper climb; a couple of bad rounds or poor teammates and frustration sets in fast. Also, 1 vs 2 scenarios are almost impossible to carry — the design favors squad work, not lone heroics.

Wildlight did try to pivot. First, a 5 vs 5 mode arrived as a temporary event and then stuck around as permanent. The idea: spread the responsibility, dial down the intensity, make room for different playstyles. More recently they launched Raid Rush — a mode that drops the loot-collection phase entirely, so matches move quicker and focus on the basic mechanics. Like the larger team mode, Raid Rush runs 5 vs 5.

Those moves make sense on paper, and some players reacted positively, but momentum matters. Right now the player counts suggest interest is dwindling, and whether these changes can pull people back remains uncertain — maybe a long shot, maybe salvageable, depending on how rapidly perceptions shift.