Old PS4 Batman game has more active players than Suicide Squad on PS5

Our Batman Arkham Knight and Suicide Squad PS5 player count comparison reveals the nine-year-old Batman game has more active PlayStation players.

Old PS4 Batman game has more active players than Suicide Squad on PS5
Lee Brady

Lee Brady

Published

There's simply no fighting the appeal of those Batman Arkham Knight trophies — even if you're technically the latest PS5 entry in the same series. According to our Batman Arkham Knight and Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League PS5 player count comparison, Rocksteady Studios' nearly-decade-old Batman game saw more active PlayStation players last week than February 2024's Suicide Squad release. Seems there really is no topping one of the best PS4 games around.

Lee

Suicide Squad Kills The Justice League loses over 70% of its debut PS5 audience

According to our exclusive gameplay data from 3.2 million active PSN accounts (courtesy of our partnership with GameInsights; as of week ending Sunday, March 10, 2024), Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League has lost 72.34% of its active player count on PS5 since its launch week (data from week ending Sunday, February 8, 2024). That's also a 73.41% player count drop since it reached its peak audience share (week ending Sunday, February 12, 2024).
Meanwhile, after Batman Arkham Knight's PS4 player count hit a new peak back when Suicide Squad launched, the game's audience on PlayStation has since dropped 62.42%. Yet, even as the PS4 Batman game's player count begins to fall to more acceptable levels for a nearly ten-year-old game, it hasn't been dropping players nearly as fast as Suicide Squad. Which is why, as of the week ending Sunday, March 10, 2024, Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League has 1.77% fewer active PlayStation console players than Batman Arkham Knight.

While I believe up until now I have remained fairly open-minded about the notion of Suicide Squad somehow miraculously bouncing back into the hearts of PS5 and PS4 players, I think at this point it's nigh impossible to misinterpret the data here. Whether it be a general lack of interest in its live-service design or a rejection of its spongy third-person shooter gameplay, either way fans and players are simply not interested in sticking with Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.
Much like Gotham Knight's PS5 player count this time last year, we're again seeing PlayStation console players showing preference for Rocksteady Studios' exceptionally solid PS4 Batman game than any Batman-related PS5 multiplayer spin-offs. However, unlike with the outsourced Gotham Knights, what makes Suicide Squad's diminishing returns more upsetting here is the fact that the game comes directly from Rocksteady, the studio behind Batman Arkham Knight.

Here is a studio capable of creating a game that nearly ten-years-on can consistently rank among the top 200 PS5 and PS4 games in any given year. Batman Arkham Knight has had more active PS5 and PS4 players this past month than 2018's God of War — that's the caliber of production we're talking about here. So, to see that same house of developers fail to meet the mark on their big return to the franchise stings all the worse, and I'm sure many questions will be asked regarding why such an intriguing game had to be made this way.
Perhaps if Suicide Squad had turned out to be one of the best PS5 multiplayer games we've ever played, things might have been different. Unfortunately, by most accounts the game feels confused in its efforts, and fans are choosing to simply abandon ship rather than wait to see if things work out for the best. Will it make a big rebound with PS5 players after some heavy discounts and DLC? I can't see it, but let me know your thoughts down in the comments below.

Chart compiled using gameplay data from over 3.2 million active PlayStation accounts (not just TrueTrophies accounts). Chart information is copyright GameInsights. Regarding this data:
  • When an account opens a game, this is registered as a game being played. Accounts can only register a game once per week.
  • Our data is good for suggesting general trends — we represent this using percentages, not numbers.
Written by Lee Brady
News Editor Lee covers the latest upcoming PS5 games like Ghost of Yotei while making sure PlayStation Plus’ classic PS1 and PS2 games are given enough respect. Lee leads the charge on our original data analysis courtesy of Game Lens. His 25 years of PlayStation experience compliments his love of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
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