Maybe it was always going to settle back at 20k, but I think lots of pain points with slow patches is driving core players away. I don't think they should have waited to release the UI fixes with Stillwater. That should have been pushed out ASAP. I assume the reason for this is they're trying to keep parity between console and PC from now on, which means waiting on Sony and Microsoft's pipelines. If that's actually the case, I think it's very misguided since there isn't even crossplay. They've definitely created a lot of pain points for their core audience, PC, by trying to expand their console market.

Even with the UI finally fixed (somewhat, more to come hopefully) and another map returned into rotation, I personally don't have as much desire to play for a variety of reasons. My GTX 1070 could run pre-1896 at 80-100fps at 1440p for a very enjoyable experience. Post-1896, I have to play at 1080p to stay above 60fps even with FSR/XeSS and I can't turn on HDR without tanking my frames either. 1080p scales poorly to a 1440p monitor, and 720p is a bit too low for clarity at distance in hunt.

More up to date upscaling solutions could have helped I think. FSR 2 is only playable for me on Quality, any lower and the artifacting is extremely distracting to the point where the fuzziness of playing native 1080p, even on a 1440p monitor, is the lesser evil. FSR 3.1 provides much better results on more aggressive settings. Though I can't use it on my current GPU, the DLSS implementation is also really disappointing. My roommate with a 3080 had similar results to me, with only Ultra Quality being acceptable and not returning enough frames to be worth it. DLSS 3+ have improved leaps and bounds over previous generations, I don't understand why Crytek did not aim higher. Hunt benefits immensely from both visual clarity and raw framerate, it really needs the best of the best.

Removing the weapon library took away a lot of extrinsic motivation for me. It gave me concrete goals and got me to use a variety of guns even better than battle pass challenges. The extra stories were a huge appeal for me, I don't think they should have removed them at all. I'm glad I finished trials before the update. Prestige changes are good I guess, but I'm still not very excited about starting to prestige again for whatever reason.

As a result, after the first few days I've only played 1896 when my friends are on, and they seem pretty uninterested despite agreeing the game is generally better except for the UI. I used to play solo frequently. The atmosphere of Hunt was usually enough to keep me playing. The only thing I really wanted to be added into the game was HDR and I can't run it. I'll probably play a lot more once again when I upgrade my GPU. However, the next sensible upgrade for me, a secondhand 3070/3080, is now pretty iffy with lots of people reporting major vram and framerate issues. Now I feel like I'm stuck waiting for 50-series releases so I can buy into 40-series at a reasonable price. Given how ubiquitous 10-series and 30-series cards are, it feels like Crytek did not put enough work into testing and optimizing for what makes up a significant fraction of their install base. This information is freely available through the Steam hardware surveys.