Highguard: What does success look like?

Regardless of already having the status of ‘simply one other hero shooter’, Highguard has been a speaking level since its announcement on the finish of 2025. Turnover for the sport’s launch has been speedy, launching simply over a month later, and we are able to lastly see what all of the fuss is about.

In some ways, Highguard has proven shades of unsuccessful hero shooters of the previous, and with all of the competitors, it’s an extremely troublesome style to get a foothold in. So, after all of the drama surrounding the sport, the query arises of whether or not Highguard could be a success, and what success would even realistically appear to be.

It’s simple to simply name Highguard one other hero shooter, however it’s making an attempt to do issues in another way from different video games within the style. It’s 3v3, somewhat than the standard 5v5 or 6v6 format, that includes a mixture of gunplay and magic. The dimensions of the sport’s map is one other distinctive characteristic, permitting gamers to make use of mounts to journey throughout a big, open space with big siege towers to assault.

A principal a part of the Highguard’s advertising is that the studio behind it, Wildlight Leisure, was based by veterans of Respawn Leisure. These veterans have been a part of Apex Legends’ improvement, a wildly profitable hero shooter that Wildlight appears to wish to replicate.  

Whereas many have been dismissive of Highguard, it turned a controversial title the second it was introduced. The timing of the Highguard Recreation Awards reveal trailer was a significant component on this.

The 2025 Recreation Awards was a showcase of distinctive, inventive excellence, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 breaking information for the variety of awards gained. It was additionally an indication of how this was missing within the aggressive multiplayer scene, since single-player video games dominated the awards and all the most effective bulletins.

Whereas there have been loads of large titles to be introduced, Larian’s Divinity was the most important of the bunch. After the astounding success of Baldur’s Gate 3, no matter Larian made subsequent could be big, but this was not the title that closed the present. Highguard was the massive announcement that Geoff Keighley saved up his sleeve, however it fell flat instantly.

Comparisons to the monumental failure that was Harmony have been made on the evening. It was a controversial determination, a lot in order that, despite the fact that Highguard’s advertising remained quiet after the trailer dropped, the web buzz was palpable.

Keighley has continued his work as a one-man marketing machine for Highguard on X, which has possible contributed to the web buzz and controversy in equal measure.

With the sport now out, a lot have gone to voice their opinion, and it hasn’t been fairly viewing. After lower than 24 hours post-release (as of writing), there have been over 14,000 evaluations on the Highguard Steam page, and the sport sits at Largely Damaging evaluations, with solely 32% giving a thumbs up.

These evaluations echo some comparable messages:

Some have acknowledged that they’ve discovered the sport enjoyable, and the gunplay has not often been a grievance, though it hasn’t been all that praised both. It seems like the sport’s scope is smaller than the web buzz and a focus it acquired.

Highguard began very robust with its participant numbers, in keeping with SteamDB. It managed a peak of 97,249 inside the first couple of hours, however round 12 hours after that peak, the sport had round 8,000 gamers, displaying a 90% lower.

On condition that Highguard is a free, live-service title, it wants gamers to stay round, and the way the participant depend will look in its first month will likely be very important. Clearly, it must do higher than the title it has usually been in comparison with, Harmony, which was famously lifeless on launch, however that ought to be seen because the naked minimal.

Success would additionally imply making an attempt to be part of the 2026 esports scene in some capability. Esports video games can usually take a while to correctly domesticate, however Highguard might want to acquire and preserve a large viewers to have a shot at making an affect, competitively. This gained’t be simple, contemplating all of the competitors within the hero shooter style, and it gained’t be made any simpler in future with Valve’s Impasse being the closest factor to a assured success.

It isn’t life like to count on Highguard to compete with the likes of Overwatch 2, Marvel Rivals, Apex Legends, VALORANT, and so forth, no less than not any time quickly. Nonetheless, this primary month will likely be telling, and if it might preserve its head above the ten,000 gamers for a day by day peak, whereas listening to participant suggestions, it may carve out its personal area of interest within the style.

From the appears of largely adverse evaluations, it is going to be a venture that Wildlight should preserve shaping post-launch, if it really believes in it. It’s unlikely that Highguard would be the genre-defining title that Geoff Keighley has frequently insisted it deserves to be, given its rocky begin, however it’s removed from the monumental failure that Harmony was.

Whereas the Recreation Awards Highguard trailer received the phrase out in regards to the recreation, it additionally created a buzz that has to date damage greater than helped. Highguard has the beginnings of a playerbase, if its Steam numbers are something to go by, however sustaining it is going to be powerful amid a adverse evaluate storm.

This gained’t be a straightforward activity for Wildlight Leisure, and it might want to make important enhancements to the sport to maintain it going after a turbulent launch. It’s troublesome to see Highguard being held in the identical regard as one thing like Apex Legends, though it isn’t one other Harmony, which couldn’t even get 1,000 gamers at its peak. 

Highguard doesn’t appear to be it is going to be the following massive factor within the style, however with a troublesome highway forward, it has an opportunity to carve out its personal area of interest, nonetheless unlikely.