According to SteamDB, Doom: The Dark Ages has hit a peak of just under 31,000 concurrent players in the 24 hours since its launch. While that’s a respectable number for most games, it’s considerably lower than its prequel Doom: Eternal (104,891) and even lower than Doom 2016 (44,269).
The Dark Ages marks several firsts for the series, which may have affected the game’s early reception and numbers. Most obviously, it’s the first to deviate from the futuristic, sci-fi themes that have dominated the reboot series but, crucially, it is also the first DOOM to release simultaneously on store fronts and Gamepass. Early reports say the campaign takes anywhere from 12 to 16 hours to complete—ideal for Gamepass subscribers willing to wait for the weekend to push through the story without paying full price.
Doom: The Dark Ages is also the first in the series to require raytracing. According to the latest Steam Hardware Survey data from this April, just a little more than half (~53%) of all Steam users have a GPU that supports raytracing, so this effectively cuts off a large portion of the PC gaming market. The new requirement marks a stark contrast in philosophy with both Doom 2016 and Doom: Eternal, which were both lauded for their excellent performance, even on handhelds like the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck.
Many in the gaming community have also complained about the game’s Denuvo implementation. The DRM solution has been under fire in recent months after reports that the software noticeably reduced performance and increased loading times in games like Lies of P and Final Fantasy 16. Already many users are blaming Denuvo for The Dark Ages’ performance issues, though Denuvo was also present in Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal.
