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.
Payday 2 has been around forever at this point, so it makes sense. I think it’s probably been around longer than GTA V and has been getting updates and DLC the entire time.
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.
We (Payday 2 Players) also racked up hours upon hours (I think I am around 1000 total) and they didn't really give us anything for all that work. We got a underwhelming skin. A bare bones weapon, and some weapon charms ...do they realize how hard it was to beat every heist on Deathwish without a hacker in the lobby? A Charm? For Real? Give me my deathwish mask back and I will play your new game