After a challenging launch, Payday 3 has seen a significant decline in sales, with developer Starbreeze reporting earnings of $7.7 million in 2024, down from $44.5 million in its initial year. To place this in context, the much older Payday 2 generated $3.9 million in sales for the same fiscal year, outperforming its follow-up despite its decade-long presence in the market.

A report from Game Developer highlights several concerns for Starbreeze, drawing from corporate financial documents that indicate Payday 3 fell short of expected sales during its launch and continued to underperform in subsequent months. This downturn led to the unexpected exit of the company’s CEO in early 2024.

Overall, Starbreeze registered a fiscal loss of $18.5 million in 2024.

Although Payday 3 received a significant update last year, player reviews remain mixed, and the game director’s departure after the rough launch further exemplifies its struggles. A producer referred to the launch as ‘disastrous’ in a telling interview, underscoring the ongoing challenges faced by the development team.

Despite these challenges, Starbreeze expresses optimism for the future. Their plans include Payday collaborations with popular games such as PUBG and Roblox, in addition to promoting Payday 3 as a free title on PlayStation Plus for February, which they hope will entice new players to invest in additional content.

In addition to ongoing projects related to Payday, Starbreeze is also working on a co-op Dungeons & Dragons game, which they report has received positive preliminary feedback from potential business partners.