Highguard adds limited 5v5 mode after player numbers dwindled

After launching on January 26, Highguard has struggled to keep players, according to SteamDB, and developer Wildlight announced a big update this week: a limited-time 5v5 mode for the free-to-play raid shooter. Studio head and game director Chan Grenier teased a “big update” on Twitter, and the change arrived about four hours after the tease.

Wildlight said the 5v5 Raid Mode is an experiment for the weekend and is a separate playlist, not meant to replace the game’s 3v3 raids. The official Highguard account wrote, “We heard the feedback,” and the lobby has been updated to allow parties of five while the mode is live. The patch that added 5v5 is live now on consoles and PC, but Wildlight warned that adding more players could cause some performance issues.

Kotaku’s writer said they were interested to see if more players in the game’s large maps might add excitement and reduce pressure on players during team fights. The conversation around Highguard has been turbulent since its reveal at the 2025 Game Awards; the final teaser failed to excite many viewers and a subsequent period of radio silence drew negative commentary online.

When Highguard launched it nearly reached 100,000 concurrent players, according to SteamDB, but the player count dwindled days later as negative reviews began to flood the game’s Steam page.

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