By all accounts, space-dwarf mining sim Deep Rock Galactic has one of the last positive communities left in all of videogames. There's something about rambunctiously stripping the galaxy of resources as a squad of stout 'n' shouty guys that brings out the best in people. That must be why—per developer Ghost Ship Games' own 2023 end of year stats—over 8 million people have gotten in on the action since the game released in early access back in 2018.
Or at least, 8 million have bought the game, and I suppose a fair few of them went on to let it languish in their Steam libraries untouched. Nevertheless, DRG is going from strength to strength, selling a record 2.5 million copies in 2023 alone. But we have to talk about some of these other stats.
Ghost Ship has also provided us with the game's top five causes of death. Three of them—the second, fourth, and fifth most popular ways to bite it—are what you'd expect: various genres of glyphid, the game's enemy alien lifeform that get very upset when you try to mine them. The number one way to die, causing nearly 50 million premature ends, was fall damage, which might have something to do with the 155 million beers consumed throughout the year.
But the most pleasant community in gaming also notched "friendly fire" as its third most popular way to die, with nearly 21 million people finding themselves fragged by teammates in 2023. It is, in fact, the only cause of death in the top five to have increased compared to the year prior. It went up 2.59% compared to 2022.
I've gotta say, that seems like a bit of a contradiction. The name might be a tad confusing, but friendly fire seems like the least friendly thing you can possibly do. Perhaps this just means all those other co-op shooters are experiencing a friendly fire in the hundreds of millions and DRG is winning out in the niceness stakes by default.
Here are those stats in full. Perhaps we can make a resolution for 2024: Stop drinking so we much we murder our friends. Please, do it for me.
