The Outer Worlds 2 Falls Behind Avowed in Pre-Release Performance

Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds 2 is launching in mere hours, and anticipation is high as gamers wait on the edge of their seats to see whether the impending sequel can put the once-acclaimed studio back on the map or whether it will follow Avowed as Obsidian's second underwhelming release of 2025.

Unfortunately for Obsidian, based on The Outer Worlds 2's pre-release performance on Steam and its comparison to Avowed, the latter outcome now seems much more likely, with numbers showing weaker pre-release metrics than Avowed had before launch.

According to SteamDB data, during The Outer Worlds 2's Advanced Access period, the game reached a peak of just 10,878 concurrent players. While that number is underwhelming on its own, it looks even worse when compared to Avowed's pre-release peak of 13,318, which was already a weak showing.

While an argument could be made that the pre-release numbers aren't indicative of anything, it's worth pointing out that the same argument was previously used to defend Avowed, which ultimately peaked on Steam at only 19,198 simultaneous players.

For comparison, the original 2020 The Outer Worlds, which had no pre-release stage, peaked on Steam at 20,349 concurrent players and currently maintains much stronger daily averages – around 1,500 players – compared to Avowed's roughly 200. Even so, both figures fall short of what many consider Obsidian's magnum opus, Fallout: New Vegas, which, despite celebrating its 15th birthday a few weeks ago, still averages around 6,000 active players at its daily peaks.

While we could spend days debating why TOW2 is underperforming compared to Avowed, the most obvious factor seems to be its steep $70 price tag that encourages many players to choose Xbox Game Pass – which, despite its recent price hike, remains a cheaper option – over buying on Steam, likely contributing to the low numbers on the platform.

Even if that's the case, as an earlier report on the Call of Duty franchise losing $300 million due to Game Pass illustrated, player numbers have never correlated with actual sales since the birth of subscription services. In other words, even if PC players simply migrated from Steam to Game Pass, Obsidian's profits would still take a hit – and it doesn't take a genius to figure out what the consequences of not just one, but two underwhelming releases in one year could be for the studio.

And what's your take on the situation? What do you think is the main reason behind The Outer Worlds 2's pre-release underperformance on Steam? Can the sequel bring Obsidian back into the spotlight after the Avowed fiasco? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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