Originally released in September 2023, there have been plenty of occasions during the last 18 months when it looked like Payday 3 was finished for good. Steep declines in the Steam player count, some middling reviews, and a couple of misfire updates have all suggested a premature end for Starbreeze's struggling FPS sequel. But Payday 3 fights on. The new update and Party Powder DLC have sent the game's player numbers sharply upward. There's a new heist, a new weapon, and a total transformation of the controversial armor system. GTA 6 might be on the way and realistic shooters like Escape From Tarkov and Delta Force may rule PC right now, but perhaps Payday 3 still has a chance.
The road back for FPS game is still burdened by an ignominious 'mixed' rating on Steam, and averaging between 500 and 1,000 concurrent players. Compare that to Payday 2, which has a 'very positive' overall score and still pulls in between 15,000 and 20,000 simultaneous s per day.
Nevertheless, Starbreeze is still pushing. Having recently acquired the full publishing rights for Payday 3, the developer has just released a transformative new update. The Party Powder heist is paid DLC – designed as a more open-ended mission, it allows players to complete objectives in any order, and offers multiple routes for infiltration. Free for all players, however, are the Justicar revolver, a fan favorite from Payday 2, and the new armor system.
Armor 2.0 lets you mix and match different plates to create your own, customized flak set. It's more flexible and personalized than the original Payday 3 system, and feels closer to the armor mechanics of Payday 2. And at first glance, all these new updates seem to be having the desired effect.
On Sunday May 25, before the Party Powder heist and Armor 2.0 were released, Payday 3 had a concurrent player count high of just over 800. A day later, after the updates, that jumped to 2,908, the highest it's been in the whole of 2025, according to SteamDB.
There's more work to be done, but if these incremental improvements keep arriving, maybe Payday 3 can come closer to matching players' expectations.
In the meantime, you might want to try some of the other best co-op games on PC.
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