WARDOGS Sold a Million Copies on Day One, Then Got Review-Bombed Over Server Queues
Launching into Steam Early Access is always a gamble, but few games have had a debut as wild as WARDOGS. Developer Bulkhead and publisher Team17’s 100-player tactical shooter sold more than a million copies within roughly its first day, then almost immediately buckled under its own popularity, sending its Steam rating on a rollercoaster ride that only settled down this week.
A Record-Breaking Debut
WARDOGS launched into Early Access on September 10, pitting 100 players split across three teams against each other on destructible, Eastern European industrial maps. It’s a big swing for Bulkhead, a comparatively small studio, and the numbers backed it up immediately. The game had already built momentum with over a million Steam wishlists and a closed beta that drew nearly 500,000 players in August, and a final stress test just before launch peaked at 245,118 concurrent players. None of that fully prepared anyone for what happened on launch day itself, when WARDOGS blew past a million copies sold and peaked at 340,171 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamCharts figures from September 11.
Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer didn’t hide his excitement about the sales number, calling it a milestone the whole team was proud of as players chose to jump into an unfinished, Early Access game in such huge numbers.
WARDOGS splits 100 players across three teams fighting over control zones on destructible battlefields
When Success Becomes a Problem
That flood of players quickly overwhelmed WARDOGS’ server infrastructure. Massive login queues formed within hours of launch, and some players reported authentication errors that knocked them back to the end of the line after they’d already waited for hours. Frustration boiled over in the Steam reviews, with complaints that streamers and other influencers were being fast-tracked past the queue while paying customers sat waiting. Team17 and Bulkhead denied any preferential treatment, saying the queue issues were affecting everyone equally regardless of platform status.
One frustrated reviewer summed up the experience bluntly: “All my game time is in lobby trying to get in a server.” On top of the queue chaos, WARDOGS’ newly added Elytra anti-cheat software turned out not to run on Linux, locking out Steam Deck and Proton users entirely. Bulkhead had flagged days before launch that it couldn’t commit to Linux support at launch and advised affected players to refund, but that didn’t stop the frustration from adding to the pile-up of negative reviews.
The Review Bomb, and the Recovery
By September 11, the backlash had dragged WARDOGS’ Steam rating down to “Mixed,” with the negative reviews centered almost entirely on server infrastructure and queue fairness rather than the actual gameplay. Brammer addressed the chaos directly and owned the mess. “I gotta take the L on this one guys,” he wrote, adding that the studio had deliberately launched on a Thursday to give itself room to fix problems before the weekend rush.
That approach seems to have worked. As of this week, WARDOGS’ Steam page shows a “Very Positive” rating, with 84% of more than 27,000 reviews now positive, a sharp turnaround from the dip just two days earlier. Queue times have reportedly shortened considerably as Bulkhead scaled up its server capacity, though the Linux/Proton issue remains unresolved.
WARDOGS by the Numbers
- Developer: Bulkhead / Publisher: Team17
- Early Access launch: September 10, 2026
- Copies sold on day one: over 1 million
- Peak concurrent players (Sept 11): 340,171
- Current Steam rating: Very Positive (84% of 27,000+ reviews)
- Console versions: PS5 and Xbox confirmed, targeting 2028
What’s Next for WARDOGS
Bulkhead and Team17 have already confirmed console versions of WARDOGS for PS5 and Xbox, though those are currently targeting a 2028 release window, roughly two years out. On PC, WARDOGS is expected to stay in Early Access for one to two years as Bulkhead continues expanding the shooter based on community feedback. For a studio this size, a launch this chaotic could have sunk the game entirely. Instead, WARDOGS looks like it’s on track to become one of 2026’s bigger multiplayer breakouts, server queues and all.
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Picture Source: Bulkhead / Team17 (Steam)
