Wardogs servers go down as over 300,000 people rush to play on launch day

Wardogs, a 100-player milsim FPS that launched today in early access, is an immediate hit. It's currently Steam's global top seller and has so far peaked at over 300,000 players. Unfortunately, you might not be able to play it right now.

Servers are getting slammed, players are stuck in the login queue, and as of this writing, developer Bulkhead has taken servers offline entirely to work on a fix.

"We are actively working towards getting as many of you in game as soon as possible. Apologies for the disruption," the Wardogs account posted on X. "This is due to an issue that wasn't present in the previous beta. "

Trying to log in currently serves up an error, and when Wardogs does come back online, you should probably expect to be stuck in a login queue for a while. In a video posted today, Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer seemed to suggest the long queues are partially due to being "rate-limited by Valve. "

"Ideally we'd be on a triple-A tier for some of this stuff, but we're not. So we're talking to them, trying to get that sorted out. It is what it is. I wouldn't leave the queue, I'd just stay in. "

The disruption isn't a huge surprise, given the Wardogs' popularity, but it is disappointing. Players had the impression that the numerous closed betas held right up to launch would mean a smooth launch day. Bulkhead seemed confident that they were in a good place, too: The final closed beta held this past weekend invited players to "obliterate our servers. "

Are you sure about that?

But the day is still young. Hopefully it all gets sorted sooner than you're reading this. I'll update this story when servers are back up.

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.