Summary
- Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Siege has surged in popularity, hitting an all-time peak of over 201,000 concurrent players on Steam in 2024.
- The game, known for early bugs, now offers balanced gameplay, new content each year, and free access events to keep players engaged.
- With a new villain operator, Deimos, and Twitch momentum boosting player count, Rainbow Six: Siege remains a popular choice for tactical shooter fans.
Ubisoft's online tactical shooter, Rainbow Six: Siege, has recently seen a surge in players, reaching an all-time peak of over 201,000 concurrent players on Steam as it enters its ninth year. With this recent surge in popularity, what makes the title worth revisiting in 2024?
Rainbow Six: Siege had a rocky launch, and was known as a buggy mess in its early years, but still amassed an audience due to its environmental destruction and fun gameplay. Since then, Ubisoft has put in work to add quality-of-life features that have made the game more balanced, completely changing entire systems at times if they don't seem to make sense anymore, and has added new content to Rainbow Six: Siege each year, even when future entries in the series, such as Rainbow Six: Extraction - which saw the series' tactical shooter gameplay used to take on an alien threat - was not as popular with players.
The Best Tom Clancy Games From The Franchise's Golden Era
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Tom Clancy dominated modern military gaming. With a new Splinter Cell coming, it's worth revisiting the series' golden age.
Ubisoft Holds Several Free Access Events For Rainbow Six: Siege
The Title Is Often Heavily Discounted
The recent surge in popularity, which saw the game reach an all-time peak of 201,933 concurrent players on March 17 (via SteamDb) may have been bolstered by Ubisoft making Rainbow Six: Siege completely free for a week between March 14 and March 21, along with a heavy discount that dropped the game to just $4 until March 20 for those who wished to keep it. This is far from the first time Rainbow Six: Siege has been heavily discounted, however, and Ubisoft has held many free access events for the game over the years.
These free-access events are often timed to coincide with the release of a new season's content. This allows players to occasionally dip in and out of the game to see what new operators, weapons, and missions the title has in store, or invite their friends to assist them when loading up the game's new operations for the first time.
What Is New In Rainbow Six: Siege's Year 9 Content?
Players Can Assume Control Of The Game's First Villain Operator
Each year, Ubisoft has added four new seasons with new free content including maps, features, or game modes as well as new unlockable content such as operators, weapons, or character skins. These operators can sometimes include guest appearances from Ubisoft's other Tom Clancy titles, such as Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher, who was introduced in 2020's Year 5 Season 3 Operation Shadow Legacy expansion under the codename "Zero".
This month, Rainbow Six: Siege began its first Year 9 season, Operation Deadly Omen, which marks a historic moment for the title, as players will be able to assume control of its first villain Operator, Deimos. Deimos, whose real name is Gerald Morris, is a former Rainbow operator turned international terrorist, who is revealed to be the mastermind behind the assassination of Masayuki Yahata and the one who orchestrated the conflict between Rainbow and Nighthaven.
Deimos' bio mentions several operations from previous Rainbow Six titles, such as the first game, Rainbow Six, Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, and Rainbow Six: Raven Shield.
When playing as Deimos, players will be able to use his unique DeathMARK gadget, to hunt down his enemies. DeathMARK is a flying probe that can identify and track a defender, giving Deimos a constant readout and 3D ping of what room they're in at all times. The downside is that using DeathMARK also reveals Deimos' location to other players with a 3D ping, albeit a delayed one, but it doesn't give them a constant readout of where he is.
Players won't be able to use Deimos' primary weapon when DeathMARK is deployed, with Deimos automatically switching to his secondary weapon instead.
Rainbow Six Siege Could Have Had An Operator Based On Goo
In an interview, one of the creative directors for Rainbow Six Siege reveals that the game nearly got a goo-based operator named 'Flubber'.
Twitch Momentum May Have Helped Boost Rainbow Six: Siege's Player Count
Rainbow Six: Siege Is Currently The 11th Most Viewed Game On Twitch
While these new seasons and a free week may certainly be a major component in Rainbow Six: Siege's player count peak, it's also worth noting that the title has become incredibly popular on Twitch. According to Twitch Tracker, Rainbow Six: Siege is the 11th most watched game on the platform as of the time of writing.
Twitch Tracker also states that as of the time of Rainbow Six: Siege's player boost, the most-watched streamer on Twitch was Jynxzi. Jynxzi almost exclusively plays Rainbow Six: Siege, with his guest appearance at February 2024's Rainbow Six Invitational Esports event making it the most viewed event in the game's history. Therefore, Jynxzi's viewers may have been keen to try the title for themselves when Ubisoft made it free, which would certainly explain why the March 2024 free week event was significantly more popular than the ones in previous years.
Is Rainbow 6 Siege Worth Playing In 2024?
There Is Plenty On Offer For New And Returning Players
While the title has some dated graphics and an aging engine now, considering its 2015 release, there is certainly plenty on offer for both new and returning players in 2024, and Ubisoft has already stated that it doesn't believe a sequel is necessary. While it's not completely void of bugs, Ubisoft has significantly improved the title in some ways over its nine-year run, and several new features and mechanics will make for a new experience for returning players who may have stopped playing years ago.
Although Rainbow Six: Siege's March 2024 free event is almost over, the game will still be included in several subscriptions going forward for those who want to try it out. Those subscribed to Ubisoft+ on PC can get the title with all 40+ of its operators from its first 8 years, along with the Year 8 Disruptor cosmetic pack. Meanwhile, the title is included in the popular Game subscription on both Xbox and PC, so many players won't have to buy the game individually to play it, making it easy enough to jump in. PlayStation Plus Extra and tier subscribers can access the game as part of the included Ubisoft+ Classics roster, whereas PlayStation Plus Essential subscribers can add Ubisoft+ Classics for an extra fee of $7.99 per month.
