Total War: Pharaoh – Dynasties brings significant player count increase

Fans greet free update with much enthusiasm

Creative Assembly / Sega

The free Dynasties update for Total War: Pharaoh is the game’s swan song – a grand, final wave of content before active development of the historical strategy game is being stopped. Players of the series have very warmly received the patch, which essentially doubled the game’s map and added much-requested factions like Mycenae, Troy, Assyria, and Babylon. Creative Assembly’s Sofia studio listened to feedback on the base game and implemented as many changes as it could based on it, adding fresh features like a family tree and adjusting various mechanics.

All of these efforts seem to be paying off: Over the weekend, Dynasties peaked at a solid 7,980 concurrent players compared to the base game’s historical peak of 5,424 concurrents, which it reached at launch (all numbers via SteamDB). Today, the game remained above 2,500 players at all times – a number the base game hasn’t reached all year long even during prime time. User reviews of the game are close to 90% positive, a significant turnaround compared to the base game’s mixed ratings.

It’s certainly a trend going in the right direction and a great reward for the herculean effort the team at CA Sofia put in: Historical Total War fans have been through some tough years and these positive developments are the first rays of hope for a long time. 

Just like the Thrones of Decay DLC swung the momentum for Total War: Warhammer 3, it seems like Dynasties is currently bringing things around for the historical side of the series.

At the same time, one has to acknowledge that Pharaoh still is very much a low point for the franchise despite the remarkable comeback: Thrones of Britannia, one of the lesser known entries into the series, peaked at over 22,000 concurrent players back in 2018. 

The mainline historical title Total War: Three Kingdoms is still reaching Dynasties’ peak numbers on a daily basis despite being five years old at this point and it can look back at a massive zenith of 192,298 concurrent players shortly after launch – for reference, that’s enough to beat the peak of Total War: Warhammer 3, although that title is looking at a healthy peak of around 30,000 CCU at the moment.

Those are the numbers Creative Assembly is really looking for – and as much of a positive story the wonderful Total War: Pharaoh – Dynasties update is, CA will want to analyze very carefully what went wrong at launch before repeating any mistakes with the next historical title. What that will be about is unclear at this point – rumors have long favored a World War 1 game.