The Day Before’s player count makes it the most authentic survival sim

Despite concerns that The Day Before was little more than vaporware in the lead-up to its release, Fntastic’s survival/extraction shooter ultimately did materialize as a real game.

It wasn’t a particularly good one (awful is a suitable descriptor), however, even though it was the most-wish-listed game on Steam before it arrived at the tail end of 2023. Interest quickly dropped off once fans of the genre finally got their hands on the long-gestating title.

Valve delisted The Day Before four days later, just hours after Fntastic announced its closure, claiming it “lacked the funds” to continue.

Despite all this, and the fact that servers for the game no longer operate, it continues to find an audience of exactly one. No more, no less.

Per SteamDB, The Day Before, from a peak of 38,104 players nine months ago, has spiraled down to just one. What exactly is going on here isn’t clear, but theorists have been putting forward their headcanon.

“Guy is literally playing a post-apocalyptic world with no humans left,” quipped one user on a Reddit thread discussing the anomaly, with another adding “Pretty damn immersive; GOTY.”

“There are rumors that it’s a modder trying to revive the game,” another claimed, with no further context or information provided. Reviving a game universally derided for its poor quality would be a bold move, that’s for sure, but stranger things have happened.

“Did someone start the game up and die in their chair of disappointment?” more questioned.

If an individual truly has somehow managed to infiltrate The Day Before, though, they’re living the dream of an authentic post-apocalyptic experience. Escape from Tarkov? The Last of Us? Too many humans. This is the true survival experience, and you’re not allowed to play it.

In the mood to read about more dead games? Concord’s got you covered.