Payday 2 currently has three times the Steam players as Payday 3 following the sequel's rocky launch and a steep drop off in players on the Valve platform.
As someone who dipped their toe into Payday 2 and is beginning to swim in Payday 3, I’m not shocked. Payday 3 is missing a lot of quality of life features that Payday 2 has, and has a lot less content. Plus, Payday 2 has been around forever and Payday 3 is fundamentally different enough that a fair fraction of folks probably just won’t ever feel any need to switch.
That said, I think Payday 3 has a better skeleton that Payday 2, especially for new players like me, and I’m excited to see it grow (and become something more than the minimum shippable product) over time.
Your forgetting what company this is. Yes, theyre their for the money, but they're genuinly devoted to making their fan base happy. They would never pull something like that.