This 2023 Ubisoft action-adventure game has suddenly exploded in popularity in the last two weeks, and has more than quadrupled its previous all-time player count on Steam.
But… why? The majority of video games peak during their first month of release, and this game is over two years old at this point. So what exactly could have inspired players to revisit this Horizon Zero Dawn-esque adventure all of a sudden?
Well, there are arguably five separate reasons for that, but I think one of them is almost solely to blame for its surge in popularity.
Like it or not, James Cameron’s Avatar films are extremely successful.
Personally, I think the reason behind their success is simple. I know the internet has been waffling on about how the films have “no cultural impact” or whatever, but the folks on Letterboxd aren’t indicative of your average moviegoers.
A lot of people just wanna see some cool stuff blow up on a big screen. I mean, c’mon, the Fast and Furious films didn’t make billions of dollars because people love the writing. They just wanna watch Vin Diesel launch a car into space (or whatever happens in those movies).
Call it sunk cost fallacy if you want, but the Avatar films continue to make bank. While Avatar: Fire and Ash, the latest entry in the franchise, isn’t quite doing Avatar: The Way of Water numbers, it’s still already made somewhere around $800 million– and these films have legs. I wouldn’t be surprised if it crosses a billion before Monday.
Speaking of, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the 2023 action-adventure game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, just absolutely demolished its all-time player count on Steam.
Players Are Flocking to the 2023 Game, And it Deserves The Recognition
The game previously peaked at 2,618 all-time players on January 13, 2025, but, as of December 22, it just shot up to an all-time peak of 12,496.
The reasoning is pretty simple: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was released an entire year after Avatar: The Way of Water, so there was very little in the way of cross-market synergy to bolster its sales.
Avatar: Fire and Ash just dropped on 19 December, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora released a new DLC, titled From The Ashes, to tie the game into the events of the film.
There are a few other reasons, too. For instance, the devs just added a new third-person mode in a recent update, it’s currently on sale for 33% off, and Ubisoft has just stepped up its advertising campaign for the game.
But really, I think it’s mostly just to do with the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, which likely spurred thousands of people to Google “Avatar video game”.
It’s great to see that this Ubisoft RPG is gaining so much attention and attracting new players! The connection to Horizon fans sounds intriguing, and it’s always exciting when a game finds its audience. Looking forward to hearing more about it!