The vampire hunt is officially over. Developer Sharkmob announced that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt will shut down its servers on April 28, 2026, exactly four years after the game’s full launch. For anyone who invested time climbing Prague’s rooftops as a bloodthirsty creature of the night, this news stings but doesn’t exactly come as a shock.
The writing has been on the wall since May 2023 when Sharkmob stopped active development. Player numbers never recovered from the initial post-launch drop, hovering around 450-550 concurrent players over the past year. That’s barely enough to fill a single match in most battle royales, let alone sustain an entire live service game.
What Made Bloodhunt Different
Bloodhunt wasn’t just another cookie-cutter battle royale. Set in the World of Darkness universe, it dropped players into nighttime Prague where vampires from rival factions battled for supremacy. Instead of a typical shrinking circle, a red mist deployed by vampire hunters slowly consumed the map in unpredictable patterns. You could scale buildings with supernatural parkour abilities, feed on civilians to restore health and gain combat buffs, and use clan-specific powers alongside traditional weapons.
The vertical gameplay was genuinely impressive. Players could climb nearly any surface, making rooftop battles and aerial ambushes a core part of the experience. Different vampire clans offered unique playstyles, from stealthy Nosferatu to aggressive Brujah. The game even featured multiple lives in solo mode, letting you respawn once and encouraging more aggressive gameplay than typical battle royales.
The Downfall of a Promising Game
Despite these innovative features and generally positive reviews on Steam, Bloodhunt never found its audience. The game peaked at around 30,000 concurrent players shortly after its April 2022 launch, but lost 90 percent of that playerbase within two months. By the time Sharkmob ended development in 2023, daily averages had already dropped to under 1,000 players.
Several factors contributed to the decline. The battle royale market was already oversaturated by 2022, with established titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Warzone dominating player attention. Bloodhunt launched as a PlayStation 5 console exclusive, limiting its potential audience. The game also struggled to retain players long-term, with many reporting they experienced everything it had to offer within 30 hours of gameplay.
The Final Months
In their shutdown announcement, Sharkmob thanked the dedicated community that stuck with the game through its struggles. All microtransaction purchases were immediately disabled, though the in-game store remains open so players can spend any tokens they have left. The servers will stay online for six more months, giving trophy hunters and longtime fans a chance to say goodbye properly.
Following European data protection regulations, all player account information and gameplay data will be permanently deleted after the shutdown. Once those servers go dark on April 28, 2026, Bloodhunt will become completely unplayable. There’s no single-player mode to fall back on and no announced plans for private server support.
What This Means for Live Service Games
Bloodhunt’s closure is another reminder of the harsh reality facing live service games. Without a massive, sustained playerbase, these always-online titles simply can’t survive. The infrastructure costs of maintaining servers, combined with the expectation of ongoing content updates, creates a brutal financial equation that most games can’t solve.
The timing is particularly unfortunate given that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 just launched to mixed reviews after years of troubled development. The vampire franchise has struggled to find footing in modern gaming, despite a passionate fanbase and rich source material. Bloodhunt represented a bold attempt to bring the World of Darkness to a new audience through accessible multiplayer gameplay, but accessibility alone couldn’t save it.
A Familiar Pattern
Bloodhunt joins a growing list of battle royale games that launched with promise but couldn’t maintain momentum. Hyper Scape, Spellbreak, Rumbleverse, and Radical Heights all met similar fates. The genre requires an enormous critical mass of players to function properly, and once you fall below that threshold, the death spiral is almost impossible to escape.
Some players are already calling for Sharkmob to release tools for community-hosted servers or an offline mode, but the developer hasn’t announced any such plans. The game was built from the ground up as an online-only experience, which likely makes such conversions technically challenging or financially impractical.
Frequently Asked Questions
When exactly will Bloodhunt shut down?
The servers will go offline on April 28, 2026, which marks the game’s fourth anniversary. After this date, the game will no longer be playable in any capacity.
Can I still buy in-game items before shutdown?
No, all microtransaction purchases were disabled when the shutdown was announced on October 26, 2025. However, the in-game store remains open so you can spend any tokens you already have.
Will there be any way to play Bloodhunt after April 2026?
Not according to current announcements. The game requires online servers to function, and Sharkmob has not mentioned any plans for offline modes or community-hosted servers.
What happens to my player data after shutdown?
Following European data protection laws, all player account information and gameplay data will be permanently deleted after the servers close. This includes statistics, unlocks, and any other saved information.
Why did Bloodhunt fail?
Multiple factors contributed including an oversaturated battle royale market, limited platform availability at launch (PS5 and PC only), rapid player decline after launch, and inability to retain players long-term with insufficient content updates.
Was Bloodhunt free to play?
Yes, Bloodhunt was a free-to-play game with optional cosmetic microtransactions. Despite removing the price barrier to entry, it still struggled to attract and retain a sustainable playerbase.
When did development actually end?
Sharkmob ended active development on Bloodhunt in May 2023, about one year after the full launch. The servers remained online in maintenance mode for nearly three years after development ceased.
Looking Back
Bloodhunt deserved better. It brought fresh ideas to an stale genre and delivered a technically polished experience with genuine style. The vampire theme was more than cosmetic window dressing – it informed the movement mechanics, map design, and moment-to-moment gameplay in meaningful ways. But in the ruthless world of live service gaming, innovation and quality aren’t always enough.
For the players who stuck around, who mastered the clan abilities and learned every corner of Prague’s moonlit streets, these final six months represent a bittersweet farewell. The game may not have been a commercial success, but it created memorable experiences for those who gave it a chance. When the sun rises over Prague for the last time on April 28, 2026, it will mark the end of an ambitious experiment that came closer to success than many similar attempts.