Evolve PC Players Rise by 1 Million in Less Than a Week

Last week, first-person shooter Evolve went free on PC and received a major bump in its playerbase. Now, publisher 2K and developer Turtle Rock Studios have announced that Evolve: Stage 2 has seen one million new players since its release on PC less than a week ago.

The announcement was made on Evolve's official Twitter account. To celebrate, players can claim Griffin's Blood Eagle Hunter skin for free. All you have to do is login to Evolve: Stage 2 between now and July 18 at 10 AM PT. The skin will become available after the event ends on July 18.

According to Steam Charts, the monster hunting game went from a June peak player count on Steam of 234 to 51,099 in the last 30 days. This surpasses the game's peak at its February 2015 launch, which was 27,403.

Evolve: Stage 2 is currently only available on PC. It's completely free with no microtransactions. While playing the game, you collect Silver Keys, which are used to unlock things like hunters, monsters, and skins. Those who bought the game are upgraded to "Founder" status, which gives them access to everything they already owned. Turtle Rock has said it plans to "show [its] appreciation for [its] committed fans and early adopters with gifts, rewards, and special access."

Turtle Rock has also said it will bring Evolve: Stage 2 to consoles eventually. The reason it's not on consoles at the moment is because of the long certification process that each update is required to go through on consoles. Turtle Rock wants to bring all of the fixes it makes on PC to consoles at once, making the process much smoother for players.

The shift to going free brought multiple tweaks and changes to Evolve. Overall performance and load times have been improved, and the hunter classes have been reworked to make it so teams are less reliant on experienced trappers and medics. You can see more of the changes here.