In a time where promising new multiplayer shooters regularly try and fail to escape the shadow of Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Apex Legends, the story of Splitgate and its creators at 1047 Games defies all logic. There were several moments when the "Halo with portals" arena shooter almost sank after failing to find a steady audience with its Steam launch in 2019.
It was a minor miracle when Splitgate reemerged with console ports in 2021 and became the hottest free-to-play game of that summer, exploding to a peak of 200,000 concurrent players and briefly making a traditional arena shooter one of the most-played games in the world.
