A Hot Launch, Then A Slide
Ten million players showed up in week one; months later, only around 5,000 remain on Steam. Now Nexon CEO Junghun Lee is calling The First Descendant's problem what many players have felt for a while: "no staying power."
In a recent capital markets briefing to investors, the company labeled the Destiny-like's "retention challenges" in plain language. SteamDB backs up the trend, showing the free-to-play looter shooter hovering at roughly 5,000 concurrent players, far removed from its celebratory launch numbers. Reviews on Steam remain "Mixed," a status that dates back to its first week.
Momentum never quite turned into loyalty. PC Gamer's own early impressions called it a "dollar store Destiny," and that blunt sentiment echoes what Lee told investors. The message from the top: strong debut, weak reasons to keep coming back.
What Nexon Says Went Wrong
Lee contrasted projects that hit targets with those that didn't. Where games like Arc Raiders and MapleStory drew praise, The First Descendant appeared on a slide labeled "What Did Not Work" alongside Dungeon & Fighter Mobile. The diagnosis was sharp. Dungeon & Fighter Mobile, he said, "lost its way" after an impressive start: "The retention mechanics weren't strong enough to hold players long-term." He added it was the "same issue with The First Descendant: Strong launch, no staying power."
The most telling line followed: "These are design issues that are not fixed with a patch," Lee said. "They require structural changes to game mechanics." In other words, this isn't about tweaking numbers or buffing a few guns. It's about rethinking the core loop that ties combat, progression, loot, and endgame together.