Highguard has launched, and the reaction has been immediate. Players flooded in within minutes, streams exploded across major platforms, and the game’s own website buckled under the pressure. For a title that stayed quiet between reveal and release, the opening hours have been intense.
Wildlight Entertainment released Highguard on Monday alongside a short gameplay showcase. Soon after, queues began to form as players tried to get in. Traffic also overwhelmed PlayHighguard.com, which started returning 404 errors after brief loading attempts.
Highguard – Gameplay Deep Dive
On Steam alone, Highguard cleared more than 63,000 concurrent players in its first 30 minutes, climbing close to 100,000 shortly after. Whether all of those players were able to get into matches remains unclear, but the demand was impossible to miss.
A packed roadmap meets early criticism
The game’s launch buzz was matched by its streaming performance. Within an hour, Highguard pulled in nearly half a million concurrent viewers across Twitch and YouTube, overtaking every other game on both platforms. That level of interest is rare for a brand-new IP, especially one released on a Monday.
Alongside the launch, Wildlight Entertainment shared a full 2026 roadmap outlining a year of free content. Updates are planned every month, with new Wardens arriving every second month. New maps are scheduled for June and October, while bases, weapons, mods, amulets, and raid tools will roll out steadily throughout the year.
Still, the early reception hasn’t been entirely positive. Steam reviews quickly dipped into “mostly negative”, with players reporting performance issues, frame rate drops, and unexpected disconnections. Some users struggled to stay in matches, while others criticised the stability on high-end PCs.
That said, not all feedback has been harsh. Several players praised the game’s structure, highlighting its build-up, flag, and siege phases as a welcome change from standard hero shooters. Comparisons to failed titles haven’t fully stuck either, especially given Highguard’s early player and viewer counts.
Right now, Highguard sits at an interesting crossroads. The interest is clearly there, and the roadmap is ambitious. Whether it can turn this explosive start into long-term success will depend on how quickly technical issues are resolved and how well those content promises are delivered.
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