It was recently revealed that Super People 2, an ambitious battle royale that was penned as being ‘PUBG with superpowers’, is being shut down by its developer. For a while, Super People – and the rebranded ‘Super People 2’ was gathering steam as a popular battle royale game, but rapidly-dwindling player numbers have effectively killed the title. As a free-to-play battle royale, Super People 2 relied too much on microtransactions to succeed, which is something that was a nail in the coffin from the very beginning.
Reportedly, Super People 2 has essentially imploded in the last few months. It has been almost impossible for players to find a reliable match, and when they do find a match successfully, they’re either paired up with cheaters or the lobby is packed full of bots. It was just six months ago that the developer – WONDER PEOPLE – installed such a huge update to the Super People platform that it warranted adding a ‘2’ onto the title, signifying the arrival of an entirely new generation of Super People.
As of August 21st, 2023, Super People 2 will be taken offline, and right now, new players can no longer enter the game.
End of a Short Era
There were many developers that tried to take advantage of the growing popularity of battle royale games. For a while, it seemed like every franchise was trying to piece together its own battle royale – even Forza Horizon had a stab at the genre. For some, it failed, and for others, it was a game-changing decision. For instance, Call of Duty Warzone was released in 2020 and it changed the face of the franchise, pulling in tens of millions of players almost overnight.
Super People – and Super People 2 – didn’t see that kind of widespread success, but for a while, it was getting increasingly popular. It was played by some of the best streamers in the world, bringing untold exposure to the all-new battle royale game.
According to the Steam DB, Super People peaked at 47,392 concurrent players in October 2022. At the time of publishing, the 24-hour peak sat at just 267 users. That’s a representative figure, as most players used the proprietary launcher to play the game, but it’s a good indication of how drastically things changed.
On Twitch, viewership crashed from an all-time peak count of 142,982 users… to just two viewers. That’s right – two (2). At the time of publishing this article, there was one channel streaming Super People and just two people watching it.
Farewell, Super People 2
In the statement released by WONDER PEOPLE, it was revealed that Super People will be terminated on August 21st, 2023. In the words of the firm:
‘Due to the game characteristics of Battle Royale, if the number of users decreases, the matching time increases, and matching cannot be fair, so we cannot provide the fun gameplay that we want. And Super People 2 also, the number of our users has decreased to the point where early access is no longer continued. We sincerely apologize for making this decision.’
As of May 23rd, no more downloads can be completed of the base game, and the in-game payment system has been discontinued. If you’ve already installed Super People, you can play it until the servers are shuttered on the 21st of August – not that you’ll be able to find a match, of course.
It was never the best battle royale game, but it was different – and that’s something that people did appreciate for a time.