On the morning of September 23, the stock price of the Polish publisher and developer 11 bit studios sharply declined. The reason was the less than successful, in the opinion of investors, launch of the city-building survival game Frostpunk 2.
Frostpunk 2
At the time of writing this news, the company's shares are trading at 343 zlotys ($88.9) each. This marks a 36.25% drop compared to Friday evening when the Warsaw Stock Exchange closed for the weekend.
In a comment to Reuters, Erste Group analyst Piotr Bogusz stated that Frostpunk 2 did not meet the forecast for online numbers on Steam. This is one of the few metrics available publicly. Specifically, his company expected to see an online presence of 80-100 thousand users, while in reality, it reached 35.5 thousand users. Although Frostpunk 2 surpassed the original by 6 thousand users in this regard, more was expected of it. At least because Frostpunk 2 had eight times more wishlists than the first Frostpunk. It is worth noting that in April, the developers of Frostpunk 2 reported that over 2 million people had added the game to their wishlists.
Frostpunk 2 Online on Steam
The analyst is also dissatisfied with the user rating of Frostpunk 2 on Steam; the title currently has 71% positive reviews. He indicated that the visibility of games on Steam decreases when their rating falls below 80%. Ultimately, this affects sales.
In a note to investors, 11 bit studios reported that as of September 23, Frostpunk 2 had sold over 350 thousand copies. It is not mentioned how many people have started the game through the PC Game Pass subscription, where it has been available from the first day. However, the company stated that Frostpunk 2 has already recouped its development and marketing costs.
Frostpunk 2 was released on September 20 and is currently available only on PC. It is expected to arrive on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles later.