World Of Tanks developer Wargaming’s ‘Steel Hunters’ to shut down after just three months

Wargaming has announced that its live service, free-to-play extraction shooter, Steel Hunters, will shut down in October 2025. This news comes just three months after the game’s early access launch in April.

Wargaming possibly hoped the title would emulate the success of its critically acclaimed titles, World of Tanks and World of Warships, but it failed to carve itself anything being a niche audience.

The announcement was made directly on the Steel Hunters’ Steam page, where Wargaming addressed the community:

“Today, we share difficult news: we’ve made the decision to sunset Steel Hunters. You’ve given us so much passion and support, but unfortunately, we’ve concluded that continuing development is not sustainable. We know this isn’t the news anyone wanted to hear, and we genuinely share in your disappointment."

Steel Hunters features battle royale and extraction mechanics. The game garnered some early on momentum but was unable to sustain it. According to SteamDB, the game peaked at an all-time 4,479 concurrent players but quickly lost steam (pun intended). As of writing, Steel Hunters has 76 players online with a 24-hour peak of just 97. 

The game has struggled to retain a specific audience as reviews on Steam hover around “Mixed”. User feedback often complains about the publisher’s practices and gameplay issues.

Steel Hunters’ servers will remain online for three more months, with the server shutdown scheduled for October 8. As a gesture of goodwill to the remaining players, Wargaming will unlock all Hunters, including unreleased ones, as well as add support for custom games.

Before this decision, Steel Hunters was in development for the Xbox Series S|X and PS5. The game was intended to target a broader audience that will now go unrealized. Steel Hunters had been in development for three years and was supposed to expand Wargaming's portfolio beyond its hard-hitters.

The live-service sector has seen a rapid decline amid a wave of shutdowns. Newer titles continue to struggle to attract a dedicated audience or retain players in a market increasingly dominated by games like Marvel Rivals or platformers like Fortnite and Roblox.