When Splitgate was released in 2019 on PC, it was a surprise hit. Who would have thought mixing Halo with Portal would end up as something multiplayer fans would love to play?
Unfortunately, the game lacked lasting appeal, and soon after its console versions were released, 1047 Gamesannounced that they were ending support for itso they could focus on another game set in the Splitgate universe, which turned out to be Splitgate 2.
A new development has surfaced recently claiming that the developers spent a ton of money promoting the game.
Splitgate 2 Said To Have Spent Over $400,000 On Influencers To Promote The Shooter
OnLinkedIn, Steamforge co-founder Nick Lombardi (viaCharlieIntel) published a report claiming 1047 Games spent a staggering $409K on influencers to promote the game. The figure are estimates based on publicly available data and “market rates from Steamforge’s algorithm.”
Per Lombardi’s report, it mentions that 1047 Games spent an estimate $408,542 on influiencers to market Splitgate 2, and this was heavily concentrated on Twitch, which is said to have received 83.6% of the total investment, despite generating less than 20% of total views.
In comparison, YouTube videos received 12.8% of the budget; YouTube Shorts just got 3.4% even it generated nearly five million views. TikTok, which might be the biggest social platform these days, received zero investment despite generating over seven million organic views.
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The payouts for Twitch and YouTube personalities are as follows:
The report makes note that 1047 Games decided to spread their budget across a broader range of mid-level talent instead of spending it on “megastars.”
Lonbardi adds, “Despite the $408k influencer investment and 27.4 million total views, Splitgate 2’s launch was catastrophic. The game lost over 96% of its Steam player base within a month, dropping from 25,785 concurrent players at launch to under 1,000 by early July. Steam reviews settled at “Mixed” (60% positive), with many players criticizing the diminished role of portals and generic map design.”
This just goes to show that all the influencer marketing in the world can’t save a game.
This past March, 1047 Gamesclaimed that 90% of players recommendedSplitgate 2. At last month’s Summer Game Fest, the game’s director drew flak for wearing a hate that said “Make FPS Great Again” andcalled out Call of Duty on stage. To make matters worse, it was then learned that Splitgate 2 had in-game bundles that cost $40-$80, which was exactly the kind of thing the Call of Duty franchise was called out for.
In any case, whatever stunt or influencer marketing apparently isn’t enough, as of today, the game’s 24-hour peak on Steam is just at 2,000 players (perSteam Charts). While that doesn’t account for the PlayStation and Xbox player bases, we highly doubt that number is far from the PC player count.
Will Splitgate 2 suffer the same fate as the first game? We can’t say for sure, but things aren’t looking good for 1047 right now.
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