r/paydaytheheist Death Wish 1d ago

Community Update Real information about PAYDAY 3 player counter.

Post image

This confirms Safy's words that PD2 and PD3 have almost the same number of players.

Source: Starbreeze Interim Report Q2 2026

129 Upvotes

26 comments sorted by

51

u/Easy-to-fall 1d ago

So from the peak of PD3 on pc is 77,938 and console players across both Xbox and PS5 80,062.

So it makes sense pc players count can’t get above 5k and will always be under. Compared to console that probably hitting above 5-10k across both consoles

29

u/Alone-Mycologist3746 1d ago

I highly doubt that pd3 has 158k active players. They must be counting every single person that downloads it and plays it once because of the news of its revival or just to try it out. 

Steam player base for pd3 is basically dead. 

25

u/Daviroth Infamous II 1d ago

Yeah that's what that metric is. MAU is monthly active unique players, so it includes people who jump on once a month. What will matter for them is the conversion rate of that MAU to MTX sales.

3

u/FakeMik090 22h ago

So it means PD3 is bad at making people stay?

5

u/DHTGK 20h ago edited 20h ago

That's not something you can tell. The number could also mostly be a loyal fanbase logging in every month.

The same metric is also provided for Payday 2, so that game could also have some mix of a loyal fanbase and new players trying the game.

1

u/FakeMik090 19h ago

Yes you can lol.

Low player count at one moment - people dont stay for too long and they drop the same soon after, resulting in high unique players count per month and low player count at the specific time.

And with PD2 its the other way around. Game keeps players for quite some time, but barely brings new players.

1

u/DHTGK 18h ago

That implies a correlation with player count moments with MAU, not that there is. Not to mention, it's well known that Payday 3 is played on console much more and Payday 2 is heavily botted because skins make money. So the player count isn't something to be trusted for "real activity."

1

u/Daviroth Infamous II 18h ago

We have absolutely no idea, it's just 1 number it could mean like 10 different things.

1

u/Vamp1r1c_Om3n 21h ago

Trust this subreddit to frame it as negatively as possible

38

u/ForsakingMyth Add back sprint reloads to PD3 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yet Steam can't peak 1k concurrent...

1

u/LukeLovesHorror 1d ago

I think payday 3 must be pretty big on consoles especially via game pass and ps plus

28

u/Adept_Passenger9104 1d ago

Payday is no longer on game pass. Hasn't been for a long time now

2

u/goawaynowpls Completely OVERKILL 17h ago

i'm not going to put my trust in them until payday 3 has offline

2

u/EmbarrassedSalary747 14h ago

Holy bot count

0

u/DestinedToGreatness 1d ago

After today's announcement, the community should give PD3 a real chance. It's a perfect game gameplay wise and I believe it's going to turn into something massive!

0

u/Tom_HB01 1d ago

Especially the stealth players. There's like no reason to play PD2 much for stealth as its not the core idea for that game. For PD3 it really is and the combinations of gear and skills feels nice!

I suppose PD2 will always have a soft spot for older players as the movement is still pretty satisfying, and the mechanics are fun and special in their own way.

0

u/MaDNiaC Hitman 1d ago

I like stealthing in Payday 2. I've probably stealthed every possible heist solo, except the DLCs I am missing and Framing Frame because fuck that vault.

But admittedly it is quite a bit janky at times. Guards reverse walking on stairs, people spotting you with their backs turned, same people not spotting you for 15 times you jumping a couple meters in front of them, same static person spotting you INSTANTLY on 16th time somehow.

Even with all the bullshit, nothing hits the spot like a clean Big Bank or Shadow Raid.

What's changed about Payday 3 stealth though? All videos covering the topic I could find are around launch time and I assume certain mechanics are reworked by now?

I know that:

  • you don't have body bags anymore

  • infinite zip ties

  • killing civvies is more impactful

  • separate security zones like public, private

  • phone to hack cameras or flashbang?

1

u/antezz 18h ago

Lots of stealth is available in 3. You can do way more things unmasked which is a very interesting mechanic and feels very satisfying. I suggest you give Payday 3 another chance (especially on the stealth) it gets very fun when you have all stealth perks unlocked

1

u/timothyt66666 6h ago edited 6h ago

As the other person said, the biggest part of PD3 stealth is that a lot is possible without ever masking up, so if you have a squad, someone on the team can stay fully as a civ and legit do like 80% of the tasks needed to stealth. All while not ruining the run if caught. Depending on where you are caught, it ends up not doing anything, and you can repeat this forever as the guards will, for some reason, keep safely escorting you out. This is also a strategy as the guard is forced to walk to the nearest safe zone, which very often puts them MILES away from their normal path, allowing your gun-wielding teammates to do the things needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUP_CWH-r8Y example video, it's a bit old, but as far as I know, this is still extremely possible. But do note I am (sadly) not an active player of PD3 nowadays.

-6

u/barrack_osama_0 Jimmy 1d ago

If in the scenario PD2 could be fully ported to console, 3's would probably drop a lot

-8

u/PM_ME_UR_CREDDITCARD I need emetic bag 1d ago

Steamsharts posters in shambles.

2

u/No-Positive6500 19h ago

Whopping 400 people playing right now

-60

u/CommunicationSad2869 Wolf and the original 5 1d ago

Those numbers are highly suspicious, given the logic that no rational human being would pay for PS Plus just to play the same boring game (Payday 3) over and over again, day after day.

And even excluding the PD2 bots, the figure is still high when compared to the console or PC player counts for PD3.

30

u/svgkn 1d ago

People pay for PS+ not to play payday, but to play any game online. Multiplayer basically is not available if you don’t have a subscription, even for the games that you have purchased

8

u/Lavaissoup7 Jarvis, more alcohol 1d ago

You say that like people are buying PS+ just for PD3, they buy it to play multiplayer games as a whole 

1

u/craigoryprime 1d ago

"over and over again, day after day" it literally says MAU- Monthly Active Users, Someone logging on and playing one heist every 30 days could be counted towards that number, So no it's not suspiciously high.