Yesterday, Turtle Rock’s seemingly doomed multiplayer game Evolve was made free to play (F2P), allowing players to try it out for no money at all.

This gamble to reinvigorate the game seems to have paid off, as there has been a 7 732% increase in players.

Looking at the peak amount of players yesterday after the announcement, 12 140 players were in game at 21:20. Comparing that to the number of players at the same time the previous day, there was a paltry 155 people playing the game.

While that’s a massive figure, it has to be taken with a grain of salt. First off, we got those numbers from Steamdb. While usually a very reliable source, it is in no way associated with Valve or the Steam Store, meaning that the numbers aren’t official.

This could also be a knee-jerk reaction from players who have been interested by the game but never wanted to part with any money. The real test (and validity of these numbers) will be confirmed (or not) in the coming weeks and months as these new players either decide to stick around and spend money on DLC, or not.

Regardless, it’s still an impressive shift. When Team Fortress 2 made the jump to F2P, the player base increased “by a factor of five”, according to Valve CEO Gabe Newell. The difference here is that Team Fortress 2 had a 66 thousand player peak in the last 24 hours, almost a decade after it was released.

Also of interest is the name of the game itself. Before the new changes it was simply known as “Evolve“, but it seems that it has been renamed “Evolve Stage 2“. If you have trouble finding it online, keep that in mind.

If you want to play it, here’s the link to it on Steam. keep in mind that it is a rather large 18.8 GB download.