Can the Rocket League Player Count Keep the Heat On in 2023?

How big is Rocket League six years after its release? Can you believe it’s been that long?

Usually, video games don’t stay popular for very long. This crazy multiplayer sports game, however, breaks the mold. The Rocket League player count is still solid!

Why?

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the game is now free to play. Plus, it’s available on smartphones. Or maybe it’s something else entirely.

Join us as we look deep into the past, present, and future of Rocket League.

Developer: Psyonix

Year of release: 2015

Platforms: Windows, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, iOS, Android

Genre: Sports

The Most Insightful Rocket League Stats (Editor’s Choice)

• The game became free to play in September 2020.
• Rocket League had over one million concurrent players that month.
• The monthly Rocket League player count is around 100 million.
• By the start of 2021, the total tournament prize pool was $11,500,000.
• A 2016 PlayStation Plus giveaway led to more than five million downloads.
• Rocket League Sideswipe, the smartphone version, was released in November 2021.
• At the end of 2021, the original game has between 50,000 and 100,000 concurrent players on average.

Rocket League Info

Rocket League is a vehicular soccer game, fun, dynamic, and, quite frankly, hard to play.

But what’s hiding behind Rocket League’s popularity? Let’s start with a little bit of history to find out.

1. Rocket League is a sequel to Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars.

(Source: Rocket League Wiki)

SARPBC is a 2008 game that was only released for PlayStation 3. If you didn’t have one, you’ve probably never heard of it.

Although it has the same premise as its sequel, it didn’t even come close to the Rocket League player count.

2. Epic Games acquired the studio behind Rocket League in 2019.

(Source: PC Gamer)

In May 2019, Epic Games acquired Psyonix—Rocket League’s creator. Players weren’t happy one bit, though, as the acquisition turned out to be really messy.

Neither company said whether the game would be available on Steam or not. This led to a huge review bombing—users left over 2,700 negative comments in a very short amount of time.

3. The game still holds a positive rating.

(Source: PC Gamer)

Thanks to the Steam anti-bombing system, these reviews didn’t alter the score. Initially, the game’s rating fell from “very positive” all the way to “mixed.”

Thankfully, the people at Steam were aware of the backlash and the reasons behind it. To shield the game from this campaign, they excluded off-topic reviews from the overall rating.

This, plus Rocket League’s player base loyalty, is what saved the game’s reputation. At the time of writing, the game still held the same “very positive” score.

4. Since September 2020, Rocket League has been free-to-play.

(Source: The Verge)

Although it was a paid game initially, Psyonix decided to make their smash hit free.

To compensate for this decision, they granted older players a “Legacy” status. Everybody that has already bought the game received several boosts and cosmetic items.

This, expectedly, increased the Rocket League player count. By how much? We’ll see in a bit.

That’s not all this decision brought, though.

5. When they made the game free, developers moved it from Steam to the Epic Games Store.

(Source: The Verge)

This raised a lot of questions.

How many people play Rocket League on Steam? What does this move mean for them?

Of course, the company behind the game had thought it through. Regardless of where people had bought Rocket League, they still had access to the game and all future updates and features.

6. Rocket League Sideswipe was released in November 2021.

(Source: Dot Esports)

This is the smartphone version of the game. It’s available both on Google Play and the App Store. You can get it there for free, just like the original game.

It’s in 2D, though, so it’s actually far from being the same product. Still, people seem to dig it—it’s getting very positive reviews on both mobile marketplaces.

Rocket League Players & Demographics

Of course, the game managed to maintain an active player base all these years.

Let’s see how its player count changed throughout the years.

7. In May 2020, Rocket League’s monthly players increased by 27%.

(Source: AFK Gaming)

How many people played Rocket League that month?

The monthly average was 81.9 million people. This was the first time ever that it surpassed the 80 million cap.

The reason for this spike was the Modes of May event, which brought several special game modes. These were available just for a short time, though.

8. The following month, there were 13% fewer monthly players.

(Source: AFK Gaming)

Although Modes of May was a huge success, the player count decreased the next month. That said, there were still 70 million active Rocket League players.

What’s more, the decline was temporary. The numbers started to rise immediately after.

9. Almost 147,000 people played the game on Steam simultaneously in September 2020.

(Source: Statista)

This peak coincided with the game’s move from Steam to Epic Games. In fact, it was the game’s most successful month on the former platform.

10. In September 2020, there were over one million concurrent Rocket League players.

(Source: GamesIndustry.biz)

Psyonix design director Corey Davis shared the news on his Twitter account on the day the peak happened. It was on September 24, 2020.

This peak in the Rocket League player count happened around the time the game was made free to play.

11. The game is shy of 100 million active monthly players.

(Source: ActivePlayer) 

How many people play Rocket League at the end of 2021?

For the last six months, it has consistently had over 95 million monthly players. In the last 30 days, around 97,055,144 people played Rocket League.

12. Rocket League has almost six million daily players.

(Source: ActivePlayer) 

The game might not be at its peak right now, but it is far from being dead.

Live Rocket League statistics show that, on average, 5,823,309 people played the game daily in December 2020. This is a slight increase compared to the previous month.

13. Around 50 to 100 thousand people play Rocket League at any given moment.

(Source: ActivePlayer)

Sure, the game isn’t what it used to be, but it’s still holding strong. And things are looking good for it in the future.

Tournaments will probably be held in 2022, too, attracting even more players. Plus, with Rocket League Sideswipe, people will be able to play on the move as well.

Rocket League Revenue

When there’s big money for the winner, everybody wants to play. And the prize winnings for this game are pretty big.

Being able to give out so much money, its earnings must be huge, right? Let’s see.

14. By January 2021, the combined prize winnings of tournaments were $11,500,000.

(Source: TechACake)

This is another reason to believe that the Rocket League player count will remain big in 2022.

By the start of 2021, 1,341 eSports tournaments were held globally. Seems like the game still has some fight left in it!

15. Towards the end of 2018, the game sold around 40 million copies.

(Source: eTeknix)

How many copies of Rocket League were sold overall? It’s hard to tell, especially since the game became free.

What we do know is that it sold five million copies within its first 10 months. By October 2018, that number had reached 40 million. It generated a huge profit for the game’s owners.

16. Rocket League had a $110 million revenue in 2018.

(Source: DigiStatement)

Its revenue was $70 million in 2017. That’s a huge increase in just one year.

Unfortunately, that’s the most recent data available online.

Wrap Up

The game isn’t really growing but isn’t dying, either. The Rocket League player count is steady.

Plus, the game is free now and has a mobile version, which might attract new players.

If you’re thinking about giving it a shot, the timing is right.