FragPunk was one of the most unique multiplayer shooters released in 2025. It took over the tactical shooter world in the blink of an eye, but died down just as quickly. This year, Bad Guitar Studio is back with what the developer sees as a soft relaunch of the game.
FragPunk is a 5v5 shooter featuring Shard Cards, modifiers that completely change the flow of the game. Some Shard Cards make your heads smaller, others give a powerful new weapon, and there are even those that remove bomb sites, creating chaos like no other game.
The game launched in March 2025, quickly peaking at 113,946 players on Steam, according to SteamDB. It offered a unique and more arcade-like experience compared to traditional tactical shooters with Shard Cards, 1v1 final rounds, and more. Unfortunately, the player count dropped just as fast, with the game plummeting to 12,000 players in April. At the time of writing, the game averages around 1,700 players – less than two percent of Steam’s all-time peak, despite Mostly Positive reviews.
A multiplayer shooter experiencing a significant player drop after the launch phase isn’t anything new. But such a drastic player drop puts the game’s sustainability at risk. While games like THE FINALS found their niche, others like Hyper Scape eventually shut down despite offering fun gameplay.
As FragPunk approaches its first anniversary, Dot Esports spoke exclusively with Bad Guitar Studio creative director and producer Xin Chang to reflect on the game’s first year and what comes next.
Throughout the launch period, FragPunk leaned heavily into being a competitive title, even hosting a World Clash esports tournament in June. The randomness of Shard Cards clashes with that idea, though. Shard Cards are random every round, making it unpredictable and, in some cases, even one-sided. This isn’t something you’d want from a competitive title in terms of developing tactics and strategy, especially considering existing esports giants like VALORANT already make it much harder to stand out in the competitive scene.
“Our biggest takeaway in the previous year has been that retention for us doesn’t come from being ‘more precise,’ it comes from being ‘more chaotic,’” Chang shared. “Players stick around when they get that dopamine hit from a Shard card, completely flipping the script of a match. If we try to be too serious, we lose.”
Chang described the FragPunk target player as someone who is burnt out of traditional tactical shooters: “We found that our niche is the ‘tired competitive player’—someone who has good aim but is burnt out on the stress of traditional tac-shooters. We’re doubling down on being the fun alternative, not just the other shooter.”
For 2026, the Bad Guitar Studio is rebuilding FragPunk as the ultimate “Shooter Playground,” further expanding the Quickplay experience. The anniversary update released on Feb. 5 offers significant rewards to players, including a free Extreme skin, 2,500 FragPunk Coins, and many more freebies, while bringing back almost every game mode ever released. More importantly, the studio plans to introduce a brand refresh through a global content-first campaign, empowering content creators, and putting more effort into supporting the player and creator community.
“We view this anniversary as a soft relaunch with the full weight of the studio behind it- we want the world to see that FragPunk has evolved and is here to stay.”
This game isn’t completely abandoning its competitive side, though. Internally, the studio envisions FragPunk as that Shooter Playground—not a party game but not a straight-edge esports title, where Ranked mode should still feel prestigious.
“We want to be a game where you can sweat if you want to, but you can also just laugh at the absurdity of the mechanics. We’re okay with not being the most ‘balanced’ game in the world, as long as the imbalance feels fun for both sides.”
Maintaining the fun imbalance for both casual and competitive players seems like an impossible challenge, as a fair environment is what dedicated Ranked players need the most. In this case, it seems that Ranked will be more of a side activity when you want to add a bit more stake to the game, knowing that the outcome of a match is not entirely in your hands. If an esports title like VALORANT may consider pro play when balancing the game, FragPunk will prioritize fun.
The vision for 2026 is set, and it doesn’t seem that FragPunk is going away anytime soon. Outside of the directional adjustment, the studio is focused on improving the overall experience. This includes continuing to clean up the UI, optimizing the matchmaking algorithm, and prioritizing match quality, so that you face a fight worthy of your skill level, rather than bots.
