I don’t understand this obsession with player numbers unless it is a full fledged MMO where player numbers matter to a degree and up to a certain point. But for games like this it doesn’t really matter.
Because it shows many people are playing it. That in itself may be of interest to people who are considering purchasing the game. Also it let’s the devs know there is a market potentially interested in DLC or sequels. If the news was that player counts dropped to a very small number, neither of those things are likely to happen
Even if it’s not an MMO, player count can be a very strong indicator of enjoyment/income at a given time. Even if it’s a single player game, player count can show how popular a game is on whole. If a 5yo game still has engagement numbers above newly released games, it’s strongly correlated with studio income/gamer trends.
They can base future decisions on what they did correctly/incorrectly, and develop their next game/dlc/etc with those lessons learned.
Release a game that has nobody playing after a month? Crapbasket. Release a game that has well into a million players despite the age? Fucking masterpiece.
