On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Wargaming announced that it will be sunsetting Steel Hunters, barely three months after it entered Early Access. Steel Hunters was described as a mech hero shooter that blends Extraction and Battle Royale.
“Today we share difficult news: we’ve made the decision to sunset Steel Hunters,” the studio announced on its website. “You’ve given us so much passion and support, but unfortunately, we’ve come to the conclusion that continuing development is not sustainable. We know this isn’t the news anyone wanted to hear, and we genuinely share in your disappointment.”
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The announcement doesn’t mean the game will immediately go offline. The game servers will remain active for the next 90 days. Wargaming said they want fans “to enjoy Steel Hunters fully until the very end”. The game servers will be shut down around October 8. Wargaming is planning updates that will help fans to create final memories together, including:
- Custom games support to play with friends and create community matches
- Fully unlocking all Hunters, including never-before-seen Hunters
- Farewell tournament
Steel Hunters has always struggled to attract and retain players. According to SteamDB, the game’s peak concurrent player count was 4,479. However, its daily player count on Steam has plunged below 100. the game was being developed for consoles before its sunsetting.
Wargaming has previously hit success in the live-service niche with World of Tanks (9,569 peak concurrent players) and World of Warships (411,338 peak concurrent players). Both games still enjoy thousands of daily players. However, its latest entry has not hit the success the developer had hoped for.
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The sunsetting of Steel Hunters points to the bigger issue with the live-service game niche. Several similar projects in the niche have either been canceled or abruptly shut down due to dropping player numbers and a lack of return on investment.
Some have blamed the development on too many games and a gaming population that is not rapidly growing as expected. Increasing economic pressure also means gamers have less spare time to play, as more time is invested into trying to make ends meet.
Will you miss Steel Hunters after its servers go dark on October 8? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
