Wardogs hits 1.25 million copies sold and 350,000 peak concurrent players on day one

Bulkhead's tactical shooter Wardogs has had a massive early access launch, selling 1.25 million copies within its first 24 hours and peaking at over 350,000 concurrent players on Steam. Server congestion hit hard on launch day, leaving plenty of players stuck in queues — a problem the studio acknowledged while reassuring the community it's monitoring servers closely.

Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer called the milestone "mental", noting the studio had deliberately tried to temper expectations — including releasing a now-infamous "10 Reasons NOT to Buy" pre-order trailer. "We didn't want people buying into blind hype," Brammer said. "So seeing more than one million people choose to jump in and play the game at early access launch means a huge amount to all of us." The game is currently PC-only on Steam, priced at £36.99, with PS5 and Xbox versions confirmed for 2028 but without a firm date. Bulkhead says it's planning a slower drip of content updates rather than chasing launch-day numbers indefinitely.

Wardogs drops up to 100 players into three-way battles across large maps combining tactical shooting, vehicle combat, base construction, and destructible terrain. Its cash-based incentive system encourages cooperation without forcing it — players can pay others for helicopter rides, bribe medics to revive them, and more. The launch comes after a rough year for multiplayer shooters: Highguard shut down weeks after launch, Marathon underperformed despite critical praise, and both Last Flag and Empulse failed to find audiences. Wardogs' strong opening stands out sharply against that backdrop.

The server troubles did generate a wave of negative reviews at launch, though sentiment appears to be stabilising. Looking ahead, Wardogs faces real competition — Grand Theft Auto 6 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 are both still to release this year, with the latter a direct rival in the multiplayer shooter space.