[REVISION HISTORY]

WARDOGS Early Access launch and technical issues

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2026-09-25 00:58 UTC → 2026-09-27 18:53 UTC · added ~~removed~~

Bulkhead and Team17 have launched the tactical FPS WARDOGS into Early Access, achieving massive commercial success. Following a surge in interest that saw the title surpass 1 million Steam wishlists, sales exceeded 1.25 million copies within the first 24 hours of its September 10, 2026, launch, eventually reaching approximately 2 million sales within five days. Financial reports indicate the game has generated approximately $70 million in revenue, outpacing other recent titles like Helldivers 2 in launch-aligned sales. Concurrent player counts on Steam have peaked at over 428,000, while streaming engagement reached over 452,000 concurrent viewers across Twitch, YouTube, and Kick. However, this high volume has caused significant technical strain. The player surge far exceeded the studio’s planned capacity, leading to server instability, crashes, and massive login queues. Technical issues have also been exacerbated by overactive anti-cheat software, which resulted in the erroneous banning of legitimate testers and high-profile streamers. To address these challenges, Bulkhead released Patch 0.11 to improve the server browser and support community servers. Following the initial launch peak, the game has experienced a decline in concurrent players. Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer described this trend as a ‘perfectly acceptable decline’ typical of the Early Access cycle. Beyond technical hurdles, the launch has been accompanied by controversy regarding studio culture. Brammer has since clarified his position on social media, denying that the studio enforces mandatory overtime and highlighting benefits such as a four-day work week for half of the development cycle and a full month of holiday in December. Following the game’s strong performance, Everplay Group (formerly Team17 Group) has increased its stake in Super Media Group, the nominal owner of Bulkhead, to 28%. As of late September, sales estimates have reached approximately ~~2.2~~ 3 million copies. On September 23, CEO Joe Brammer defended a ‘scaling pricing’ model for WARDOGS.

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