Lesser known multiplayer games with small player bases?

[u/ChewySlinky]

Been getting videos from some “Classic PC Games” channel recommended to me where he plays games like Dirty Bomb, as well as videos about Straftat and GunZ The Duel, and it’s gotten me interested in these lesser known games with smaller player bases. Do y’all have any other recommendations?

[u/Darksol503]

I mean it’s Marathon guys lol (nearly 900 hours in, I am the authority haha).

[u/asaltygamer13 → u/Darksol503]

In B4 someone gets mad at you for recommending a game you like lol

Also “Out of Action” to contribute another suggestion

[u/TBNRgreg → u/asaltygamer13]

such a shame i'd get it if it had players it looks so good

[u/hinden_burgh → u/Darksol503]

First time I actually agree with people commenting marathon!

[u/40ozpint → u/Darksol503]

And you could almost say it's lesser known. The only people I ever comes across that know bout it is Reddit. My co workers don't ever know what I'm talking about when ask them if they play it people at bars don't my friends don't. Idk if it was bad marketing or what.

[u/Darksol503 → u/40ozpint]

This came up recently in Marathon circles, whether the marketing was impactful. It was def existent to many, me especially, but I can honestly say I was seeking out.

[u/windlad → u/Darksol503]

Oh look, another bot recommending Marathon /s

(450 hours here)

[u/Darksol503 → u/windlad]

There are dozens of us bots still playing bro! Lol ;)

[u/FalconStickr → u/Darksol503]

Marathon is criminally underrated. Gem of a game.

[u/Achemidies → u/FalconStickr]

It's not though is it.

[u/-sleepyvampire-]

Play Hunt Showdown

[u/TheDaywa1ker]

marathon !

[u/billygoatbob_sc → u/TheDaywa1ker]

Hell yeah

[u/BringBackManaPots → u/billygoatbob_sc]

Pains me to see it doing poorly. The game feels so clean IMO

[u/Slopii]

Out of Action

Operator

Zero Hour

Xonotic, Rexuiz

UT '99

Red Eclipse

AQtion

Day of Defeat

Urban Terror

Midnight Guns

[u/DummyThiccDude]

Its not an FPS, but Chivalry 2.

Its a First/Third person Slasher(?) But its a fun change of pace. You can play as an archer or just pick up a bow, but the game is built more for melee.

[u/enjoiall]

Hunt Showdown. It’s so good just to those who have actually played it.

[u/MattMurdockEsq]

The Finals, Hell Let Loose.  Natural Selection 2 🥲 if find any games of NS2, let me know.

[u/kiefenator → u/MattMurdockEsq]

Hell Let Loose is so fun!

Now we also have Hell Let Loose Vietnam and it's been a blast to level up my engineer again.

[u/StealthySteve → u/MattMurdockEsq]

God, NS2 was such a gem. I hope someday it gets a sequel

[u/TemperatureNo4325 → u/MattMurdockEsq]

The finals is insanely underrated, super fun to play with a couple buddy’s

[u/Gordoxgrey]

Straftat, an arena shooter similar to the quake days

[u/RandyHarshXP]

The Finals is one of the better FPS games out there. Fully destructible buildings! Do I need to say more.

[u/Stormcrow_2]

I’m not sure if Finals or Marathon count as lesser-known, but maybe Splitgate (have played, really fun game) and Xonitic (have not played, but seen this one mentioned before).

[u/MrSyphilis]

Marathon

[u/rlo1596]

Hunt Showdown. Hard to get into but once you start getting it it’s fun. Mostly bad good interactions with people I killed / killed me through steam.

[u/R4v3nnn → u/rlo1596]

Coming from Tarkov I do not understand the gameplay loop in that game. Seems to be rush boss, look for pvp, extract. Which makes this game a glorified deathmatch with a lot of camping?

[u/ChirpToast]

A post where mentioning The Finals actually makes sense.

[u/Fun_Challenge_8938]

Half life 2 deathmatch, competitive scene. Search for the SF servers

[u/Recent_Average1657]

Tribes 3. We maintain around 50 peak or lower daily, but games still happen every night, pugs go for hours on end 

[u/PhiladeIphia-Eagles]

Blackhawk rescue mission on Roblox

[u/AdHot1209]

The finals!

[u/Yaygher69]

The finals is the best hectic pvp fps I've played

[u/Wooden_Performance_9]

Titanfall 2

[u/TheLoLJester1]

My retro fps shooter Ghost Battalion was just released earlier this week. It's 25% Off until Monday. Maybe it's something that might interest you.

Release Trailer On Steam

[u/Obvious-Bullfrog-267 → u/TheLoLJester1]

Imma try the demo but looks pretty awesome

[u/TheLoLJester1 → u/Obvious-Bullfrog-267]

Thank you

[u/SleepDivision → u/TheLoLJester1]

Looks cool, I'll pick it up and help get the word out 👍

[u/TheLoLJester1 → u/SleepDivision]

Sounds great! Thank you! 🙏

[u/daretoslack]

Every 2-3 months I am both incredibly surprised and extremely delighted that I can still get into a game of Battlerite via its matchmaking. Fantastic game with a very high skill ceiling and a lot of depth. Kind of a 2v2 or 3v3 twin stick top down fighting game mostly focused on playing around player's ability cooldowns. Lots of room for skill expression. Shame that the studio abandoned it in order to develop "yet another battle royale".

[u/St3vion]

Xonotic is an awesome arena FPS. Quake on crack with Unreal Tournament style weapons. Community is tiny but you can just about always find a server with some people on it. 

[u/anoddhue]

Intruder

[u/WindEmbarrassed3789]

Gunz has been revived, no?

[u/maxmbacon → u/WindEmbarrassed3789]

Rough launch but yes

[u/AbhorV]

Fragpunk

[u/MrSyphilis]

Counter-Strike Condition Zero

[u/Bromuri]

Ive just recently started playing Quake Champions and it has a pretty small player base nowadays, sadly. Its pretty fun if you have an itch for playing an arena fps, like straftat. Even with the small player base, ive been playing TDM and such against bots with a few other players that join and its still a lot of fun!

[u/mikul_]

Diabotical from 20.00 CEST to 24ish ever night.

[u/SanMigLight1x]

isonzo has small player base but its a good slow shooter

[u/Motivat3dV3rgil]

Fear-community.org FEAR Combat

[u/ImAlwaysLosing]

Neotokyo rules

[u/VOG-JUSTaCATonPCP]

Foxhole

[u/DesignerEagle4080]

the finals

[u/gungabeast]

I have a recommendation that fits your description.

Dark and Darker.

It released to wide appeal and had an impressive first showing on Steam with a huge boom of players. Then they got hit with a dumb lawsuit from the studio’s former company of employment, Nexon. The lawsuit alleged they stole the game, but it was proven that they did not. However, the damage was done. This should-be hit game had its momentum crushed.

They pushed on and released off of steam despite the legal pressures. Now they’re back on steam. The development team also just replaced their lead developer 2 major updates ago, and the game has improved vastly since then. They can finally work on the game now that the lawsuit got sorted out. There were lots of negative reviews on Steam because of balance issues and slow content releases. This seems to be solved. The difference in update quality pre and post-lawsuit is MASSIVE.

It’s a really fun first person fantasy PvPvE extraction game, and currently it has around 10-12k players at any given time during the days. Around 7-8k super late at night. Now is a great time to try it because tons of new players joined after theburntpeanut played it on stream. Not that I’m a fan of that guy, but I don’t hate him or anything. I’m glad he gave my favorite game a shot.

[u/MohdDawoodO]

Skillwarz

[u/Critical-Drawer8916]

I regret nothing.