First-person-shooters (FPS) have been a staple genre in the gaming industry ever since the beginning of video game history. From the arcade games to some of the most successful video games in the world, FPS games have generally been received very well with millions of players at least willing to try them out. However, in the last couple years, gamers have begun to realize that FPS genre is completely oversaturated with hundreds of games that are basically the same but sold as something completely unique. FPSs were once slam dunks for developers to create and be profitable. Now, FPSs are one of the riskiest types of games to create. This shift in the gaming industry is happening for a couple reasons. First, gamers want to stick to their tried-and-true FPSs that they have played and enjoy for hundreds of hours. Second, FPSs games have been overdone to the point where nothing “new” feels original and gamers have begun to realize it, making most new FPSs dead on arrival.

Starting with the tried-and-true shooters, even someone who does not play FPSs has probably heard of these games. Counter-Strike 2 (aka CS2 or CSGO), Battlefield 6, and to a lesser extent recently Call of Duty dominate the “realistic” shooter genre. Valorant and Marvel Rivals outshine all the other hero shooters. Last, Apex Legends, Fortnite, and maybe PUBG are the “winner winner chicken dinners” of the battle royale genres. Outside of these games mentioned above, it is extremely difficult for any other shooters to break into the genre. All of these games have a massive player-base, well-established esport leagues, and are constantly updated to keep things feeling fresh. Without any of those three things, even these games would be left behind, and some even have begun to fade into the past. For example, Call of Duty’s most recent game has yet to become profitable despite being out for several months. Because of this, the Call of Duty franchise will suffer even more in future updates and games.

Moving onto new games, there is a plethora of failed FPS games to mention. Before that, it is important to define how new FPS games can succeed in the current gaming industry climate. Since creating a unique shooter is nearly impossible, the only way to succeed as a new FPS game in 2026 is to create an FPS that is much better than its competitors. This has been done successfully a couple times in recent years but has failed dozens of times in the same time period. The best recent example of success is Marvel Rivals in late 2024, which easily overtook Overwatch as the top Hero Shooter. Marvel Rivals had a ton of things going for it; Overwatch was already struggling to stay afloat, Marvel Rivals is build on a very well-established existing IP, and the Rivals gameplay is simply a lot better than Overwatch. Overwatch is about to go through its second rebrand since Marvel Rivals released, and it probably will fail again. The only other recent FPS success story is Battlefield 6.

Here are all the recent FPS failures:

  • Most recently, Highguard was announced at The Game Awards and was instantly met with immense hate. When it was released, it had nearly 100k players trying it, only to lose over 90% of those players within 48 hours.
  • Concord by Sony Interactive Entertainment was the biggest failure recently – it was released and shut down all within a month, that is how bad it did.
  • A popular FPS live-streamer, Shroud, tried to develop his own FPS called Spectre Divide. It was shut down after 6 months.

Those are the biggest failures, but here are some other fails: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Redfall, Star Wars Outlaws, and the list goes on, and will probably continue to grow as the years go on. This is the takeaway from all this – the FPS genre has begun to stagnate as gaming becomes less creative and more about cash-grabs.