Yes, People Are Still Playing Halo Infinite – Here‘s The Situation in 2024

Let‘s establish this upfront – Halo Infinite on Xbox and PC still maintains an active community of core players. Recent steam charts data shows average concurrent users ranging from 3,000-4,000 in January 2023.

So while nowhere near the explosive 20 million that jumped in during its late 2021 launch, a passionate base persists playing Infinite months later.

What Caused Such a Steep Decline From Its Peak?

Infinite‘s fall from over 20M to around 4K average players can be attributed majorly to issues around progression, customization, cheating, and missing legacy features that compose the "halo experience."

Despite fantastic core gameplay, fans have accused 343 of releasing an MVP rather than a complete, polished product. Some key grievances include:

• Tedious progression/battle pass grind that feels like a transparent monetization ploy
• Lack of expected modes at launch like campaign co-op, mission replay, firefight
• Rampant cheating and confusing banning policies
• Underwhelming cosmetic unlocks compared to previous Halos
• Technical issues like stuttering, crashes, high latency

These problems persisted for months without substantial improvement, leading many disillusioned players to check out.

How Does This Compare to Previous Halo Titles?

The staying power of titles like Halo 3 show what Infinite could have achieved with a more complete launch aligned to fan expectations:

As this table illustrates, Infinite had the momentum to potentially rival Halo 3‘s longevity. Its trajectory mirrors titles like Cyberpunk 2077 – hot start followed by a major fall-off.

Can Infinite Make a Comeback?

All hope is not lost for Infinite. As a F2P live service game, it has time to build itself back up with substantial updates. If 343 can deliver improvements like:

• Progression overhaul
• Co-op campaign
• Mission replay
• Expanded custom games/browser
• Battle royale
• Cheat clampdown

And more content creators return to building its visibility – then interest and players could flooded back in. But the road ahead remains an uphill battle to rebuild goodwill.

What Does The Future Hold for Infinite?

While the Halo IP itself remains strong thanks to its transmedia presence with shows like the Paramount Plus series, Infinite‘s future remains somewhat uncertain.

Microsoft has thus far stood behind 343i – but some speculate if population issues persist in 2024/2024, publisher pressure for a sequel could increase. There are also rumors of a battle royale spin-off project in early stages.

For now, 343 says they plan to support Infinite as a live service title for the next 10 years. But many analysts are skeptical they can deliver enough to retain people for that long without a more drastic shakeup.

Only time will tell – does 343 still have what it takes to steer this wayward ship back on course? Or will Infinite serve as a cautionary tale of mismanaged live service ambition? The story continues…

The Bottom Line

While nowhere near its former glory, a few thousand dedicated players log on daily to enjoy Halo Infinite‘s fantastic feeling sandbox and steadily improving feature set.

Has the magic faded? For many, absolutely. But writing off Infinite while still in its infancy seems premature when its foundation remains so strong.

Whether 343 can capitalize on the lingering interest and good faith to reclaim an audience even 1/10th of Infinite‘s launch peak – now that saga poses an infinitely more fascinating question.