PlayStation Plus' controversial free game is attracting a huge number of players

Despite the negative reception of September’s free PlayStation Plus games, one title in particular is attracting an extraordinary amount of players.

PlayStation Plus is being relentlessly attacked by fans who are unhappy with its current state. Sony’s subscription service recently received a price hike, which was supposedly introduced to improve the quality of its offering for players.

Check out Saints Row below.

Fans have dismissed this claim, saying PlayStation is failing to justify the new price with lacklustre additions to the various game catalogues. September’s Essential tier offerings in particular riled up fans, as the line-up consisted of Saints Row, Black Desert – Traveler Edition, and Generation Zero, three titles that didn’t live up to expectations users had.

However, Saints Row has turned out to be surprisingly popular. It was initially met with harsh criticism at launch for being inferior to the original trilogy, which unfortunately will stay in the past as the developer made it clear they have no plans to remake any of them.

Despite that though, the reboot has ended up doing quite well in terms of concurrent players. The original spike in player numbers came from users who were using the title to redeem some free PlayStation Plus points, as well as mild curiosity as to whether the game was as bad as people claimed it to be.

In a surprising turn of events though, Saints Row has retained 86% of its players in its second week as a free title. Whether that’s down to people actually enjoying the game or slogging through it because they haven’t got anything else to play is another question, but it’s surprising nonetheless.

In other news, the developer that made Saints Row, Volition, was recently shut down, effective immediately. This was due to the reboot not being as successful as the company had hoped, leaving the future of the series unclear.