--- title: Highguard, 2026's First Contentious Title, Performs... description: Highguard, a new hero shooter from Wildlight Entertainment, launched with nearly 100,000 concurrent Steam players but lost over 80% of its player base within... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/highguard-2026-s-first-contentious-title-performs-poorly-at-launch-dbnbwgxkj twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Highguard, 2026's First Contentious Title, Performs Poorly at Launch | daily.dev og:description: Highguard, a new hero shooter from Wildlight Entertainment, launched with nearly 100,000 concurrent Steam players but lost over 80% of its player base within... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/highguard-2026-s-first-contentious-title-performs-poorly-at-launch-dbnbwgxkj og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/DbNbWGxkj.png og:image:alt: Highguard, 2026's First Contentious Title, Performs Poorly at Launch og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Highguard, 2026's First Contentious Title, Performs Poorly at Launch **[80 LEVEL](https://daily.dev/sources/80lv)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Highguard, a new hero shooter from Wildlight Entertainment, launched with nearly 100,000 concurrent Steam players but lost over 80% of its player base within 24 hours. The game received overwhelmingly negative reviews (29-30% positive) citing optimization issues, kernel-level anti-cheat, poor art style, gameplay problems, and long loading times. Despite heavy promotion from The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, the rapid player drop significantly outpaced typical hero shooter launches like Overwatch, Marvel Rivals, and Apex Legends. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Highguard Player Numbers Drop 96% in Four Days](https://daily.dev/posts/highguard-player-numbers-drop-96-in-four-days-dsc5msk6e) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Highguard's high-profile mistakes should be a lesson for other developers \| Opinion](https://daily.dev/posts/highguard-s-high-profile-mistakes-should-be-a-lesson-for-other-developers-opinion-kr9wwfc0q) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#gaming](https://daily.dev/tags/gaming), [#steam](https://daily.dev/tags/steam) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/highguard-2026-s-first-contentious-title-performs-poorly-at-launch-dbnbwgxkj) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Highguard, 2026's First Contentious Title, Performs Poorly at Launch","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/highguard-2026-s-first-contentious-title-performs-poorly-at-launch-dbnbwgxkj","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/highguard-2026-s-first-contentious-title-performs-poorly-at-launch-dbnbwgxkj"},"datePublished":"2026-01-27T07:07:13.014Z","dateModified":"2026-01-27T07:07:32.178Z","description":"Highguard, a new hero shooter from Wildlight Entertainment, launched with nearly 100,000 concurrent Steam players but lost over 80% of its player base within...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/fdef20a7cdb7ca48137cbe3a4833fc03?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/fdef20a7cdb7ca48137cbe3a4833fc03?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"80 LEVEL","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"80 LEVEL","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/78eebcd76c154e6bbfd565fed7dc4093","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/highguard-2026-s-first-contentious-title-performs-poorly-at-launch-dbnbwgxkj","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"game-development,gaming,steam","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"80 LEVEL","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Highguard, 2026's First Contentious Title, Performs Poorly at Launch"}]} ```