Rainbow Six Siege's Astonishing Comeback

Two years and 25 million players later.

In December of 2015, Ubisoft Montreal's Rainbow Six Siege released to little fanfare. It was a good game, but it relied too heavily on multiplayer modes for many players, its map supply was sparse, and servers weren't always reliable. All in all, it was a mediocre release.

Cut to two years later, and it's hard to believe we've been playing the same game. Ubisoft Montreal has supported its multiplayer shooter throughout the past 24 months, adding content, revamping servers, and listening to player feedback. The player count has increased exponentially, reaching 25 million with the recent release of Operation White Noise, the last content drop of Siege's second year.

It is, to say the least, one of modern AAA gamings' biggest comebacks. Games such as Destiny 2, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, Warframe, and Overwatch follow the ethos of "games-as-a-service," to varying effects. But Rainbow Six Siege is perhaps the best proof that this model can work.

In the video above, Mike Mahardy takes a deep dive into Siege, exploring the various ways it flew under the mainstream radar for so long, how it improved over the past two years, how it supported faithful players, and rewarded players who value complex gameplay.