2016 Open World Game Sees Big Player Count Spike During GTA 6 Wait
Topics: Ubisoft, Watch Dogs, Watch Dogs Legion
Featured Image Credit: Ubisoft
Topics: Ubisoft, Watch Dogs, Watch Dogs Legion
As we wait for Grand Theft Auto VI to release later this year, one open-world game that came out back in 2016 has seen a rather dramatic resurgence.
Many GTA fans awaiting the imminent arrival of Grand Theft Auto VI have sought out some alternatives to play to keep them busy.
From new titles like Samson, to old favourites like Sleeping Dogs, there's a wide array of different games like Grand Theft Auto, which are worth your time.
Another one of these games is Watch Dogs 2, which is now almost ten years old. And the player count seems healthier than ever, thanks to a recent discount.
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During the Steam Summer Sale, Ubisoft has discounted Watch Dogs 2 by 95%, bringing the total price down to £2.49 from £49.99.
The Deluxe Edition and Gold Edition are also similarly reduced, costing less than the price of a cup of coffee to access the full game and most of its DLC.
Watch Dogs 2's Steam player count increased 16x over the weekend, rising from 1,000 to 16,000.
— GermanStrands (@GermanStrands) June 30, 2026
That's the highest player count the game has seen in years and is close to its all-time Steam peak of 18,000 concurrent players.https://t.co/0RFVflPAse pic.twitter.com/tFOow4q8BS
Looking at the Steam Charts for the game too, it's clear that the price has stuck with players, with Steam player numbers reaching the highest they've been since 2016.
Having an average of less than 1,000 players throughout most of June, the player count suddenly jumped up to just under 10,000 on June 26, the day after the Steam Summer Sale began.
Over the last week, the concurrent player numbers have peaked at around 15,000 players, the highest they've been since the game launched in November 2016.
Read More: Watch Dogs 1 Is Worth Revisiting With This Massive Free Expansion
Similarly, other games in the Watch Dogs series have also jumped in player count, presumably as a result of the deep discounts they're getting in the sale.
The original Watch Dogs' player count has spiked at several thousand players, having previously attained a daily average of just a few hundred.
Watch Dogs Legion, however, hasn't seen as much of an increase, only hitting a 24-hour peak of 439 players. Despite having a 85% discount, Watch Dogs Legion is still priced higher than the first two games, which may have had an effect on whether players were quick to adopt it.
That's also without because Watch Dogs Legion was received less generously than its predecessors, with "mixed or average" reviews from critics when it launched.
In Watch Dogs 2, you play as hacker Marcus Holloway, who joins the notorious hacker group DedSec to "execute the biggest hack of history".
The game features a huge open-world rendition of San Francisco, where you can hack into any connected device within reach and control the city's infrastructure.
We'd recommend playing the first two Watch Dogs games due to their open-world design, allowing you to complete missions using hacks, as opposed to simply shooting your way through any problem, which sets them apart from other games like Grand Theft Auto or Sleeping Dogs.