There’s an old saying that “sometimes the original isn’t always the best”. And for the Battle Royale genre, that’s definitely the case. For while H1Z1 was the true “first” Battle Royale game, it pales in comparison to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite, especially nowadays. The game had everything it needed to succeed, but it remained in Steam Early Access for years, and then, when it finally did come out in full, it was too little too late. However, it didn’t stay that way.
For while H1Z1 failed pretty badly on Steam, it went free-to-play and got some more players. And then, it went to PS4 via an open beta, and now, it’s doing a whole lot better. In fact, it’s got millions more players through it. The team posted about this on Twitter:
[PS4 Open Beta] As a THANK YOU to all 4.5 million+ of you who have joined us since Open Beta launch, we’ve dropped the Blue Barbed Hellfire 4-6 right into your inventory! PLUS, Duos is now unlocked with a brand new patch!
Speaking of patches, the new patch had been detailed on Reddit, and you should check it out when you have the chance.
The questions now is, “why is H1Z1 doing so well on PS4?” Well, the simple answer might be the right one here. PUBG is not on PS4, Fortnite is, but even then, there’s a big difference between these three Battle Royale games. It also helps that H1Z1 is free-to-play, so it’s likely that this is encouraging people to try it out and see what they think.
They have been adding new modes like Vehicle Battle Royale and now Duos mode, so they are trying to keep their game fresh. But as in all things, only time will tell if the players stay, or if they go like last time.
