Quick answer: Dragon Ball: The Breakers got a lot better than its reviews suggest. Crossplay arrived in February 2024, nine seasons added raiders including Broly, Buu and Cell, and the matchmaking complaint that defined the launch coverage was genuinely solved. Then it stopped. The last real content update was July 2025, no Season 10 has been announced, and in July 2026 Bandai Namco left the game off its own list of active Dragon Ball titles. Steam concurrents now sit near 180 against an all time peak of just 4,053. It is always online with no offline mode. Only buy it in a deep sale, and only if you accept you may be buying access rather than a game.
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
Here is a strange thing about this game. The launch reviews in October 2022 had two main complaints: there was no crossplay, so matchmaking took longer than the matches did, and there were not enough raiders or maps. Both were fixed. Crossplay landed in Season 5. Nine seasons of raiders and content followed.
And it did not matter. The audience never arrived in the first place, and the game is now in the quietest part of its life, with no announced future. That is the honest state of things, and it is the only thing worth knowing before you spend money.
First, the name
It is Dragon Ball: The Breakers, plural. Developed by Dimps, published by Bandai Namco, released 13 and 14 October 2022 depending on region, on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch. Standard edition $19.99, Special Edition $29.99. Install size is small at roughly 6.2 GB.
What it scored, and it is worse than you think
| Source | Score | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Metacritic, PC | 53 | 10 critics. Zero positive reviews. 90% mixed, 10% negative |
| Metacritic, other platforms | 54 Xbox, 54 PS4, 64 Switch | the Switch figure rests on only 5 reviews |
| OpenCritic | 55, rated Weak, 7% recommend | one of the lowest recommendation rates you will see |
| Metacritic users | 5.3 overall, 4.5 on PS4 | small samples. PS4 rated Generally Unfavorable |
| Steam, all reviews | Mixed, almost exactly 50% | around 6,500 reviews, split nearly down the middle |
| Steam, last 30 days | Mostly Negative, roughly 30% | a tiny sample of about 30 reviews |
That first row deserves attention. A Metascore of 53 is bad, but "zero positive reviews out of ten" is a different kind of bad. Not one outlet in that sample recommended it outright. The near universal complaint was not that the idea was poor, it was that a $19.99 premium game had been built with the monetisation of a free one. Several reviewers said in plain terms that it should have been free to play.
For reference, The Breakers appeared on the same worst-reviewed-of-2022 roundups as two other games we have covered, our Dolmen review and our Kamiwaza Way of the Thief review. It was a rough year at that end of the scale.
What actually got fixed
This is the part the 2022 coverage could not know, and it is genuinely to Dimps' credit.
| The 2022 complaint | What happened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| No crossplay, so queues are brutal | Added in Season 5 on 27 February 2024, across Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch. Toggleable in options | Fixed |
| Not enough raiders | Nine seasons added raiders including Zamasu, Goku Black, and in Season 9 Z Broly, Majin Buu and Cell | Fixed |
| No friend system | In-game friends feature added alongside crossplay in Season 5 | Fixed |
| Only three maps | More arrived across the seasons, though the map count was never the headline of any update | Partly |
| Gacha and heavy monetisation | The Spirit Siphon gacha, battle pass and paid cosmetics all stayed. This is the structure of the game | Never fixed |
| Thin tutorial | Never meaningfully addressed | Never fixed |
So the single largest structural flaw at launch, the one the draft version of this review spent two paragraphs on, was solved sixteen months later. If you refunded this game in 2022 because you could not find a match, that reason no longer applies.
And then it stopped
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
Season 9 launched on 30 July 2025. Since then the game has received only small quality of life patches and routine ranked match notices. No Season 10 has been announced. As of this writing the official site is still running a fourth anniversary campaign from October 2026, so the servers are up and the lights are on.
The bigger signal came in July 2026. At DreamCon in Texas, Bandai Namco handed out promotional material listing the franchise's active games, and The Breakers was not on it. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 had been announced that April for a 2027 release, and attention has clearly moved there.
The player numbers were never strong enough to argue with. The all time Steam peak was 4,053 concurrent players, which is a remarkably low ceiling for a Dragon Ball game. Monthly averages through 2026 have run between roughly 75 and 180, with a modest uptick in late 2026. Those are Steam figures only, and console numbers are not published, but the direction is not ambiguous.
This game is always online with no offline mode. There is no single player campaign and no offline practice against bots. When the servers eventually go off, the product stops working entirely, and there is no local or peer to peer fallback. That is true of every game in this genre, but it matters far more when a publisher has stopped listing the title among its active games. Buy accordingly.
Nothing here is an announced shutdown, and some coverage got this wrong. Several outlets reported in July 2026 that the closure had been confirmed. It has not. Bandai Namco has made no statement ending support, announced no server closure date and given no timeline. A widely shared community claim about a data leak pointing to a 2028 end date is unverified and should not be treated as fact. What is documented is the absence of a Season 10, the absence from that promotional list, and more than a year without major content. Draw your own conclusion, but do not repeat a shutdown announcement that was never made.
How it plays
Seven ordinary civilians are pulled into a Temporal Seam alongside a Raider, which is a classic Dragon Ball villain from another timeline. The survivors hunt for power keys to summon the Super Time Machine, then either defend it or escape in it. The Raider wins by destroying the machine or killing enough survivors before it leaves.
Both sides can collect Dragon Balls and summon Shenron. Survivors can wish for the power to actually fight back. Raiders can wish for immortality or other advantages. As the Raider levels up during a match it gains the ability to destroy portions of the map, which does not disable planted keys but will kill anyone caught in the blast.
Role assignment is not guaranteed. You state a preference, and if you do not get it the game gives you a priority marker that improves your odds next time. That system works, but it means you can wait through several matches to play the role you actually wanted.
The concept is good. Being a powerless person hiding from Frieza is a genuinely clever inversion of what a Dragon Ball game usually is. The execution is where it falls down, with loose controls, a difficult camera, small hit areas and a transformation button sitting awkwardly next to the communication button.
The monetisation, which is the real problem
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
You pay $19.99 up front. Inside that paid game sits a gacha machine called the Spirit Siphon, a battle pass, a premium currency and a large catalogue of paid cosmetics and voice lines. Z-Fighter unlocks, which carry different skills and damage values, come through the gacha. That is not purely cosmetic, which is why the balance complaints followed.
Critics were close to unanimous on this. One described it as a smorgasbord of monetisation combining microtransactions, a battle pass and gacha in a single premium product. Another said flatly it should have been free to play. The point was never that microtransactions are inherently wrong. It was that you had already paid for the game.
The price has collapsed since, which changes the calculation. The list price is still $19.99, but Steam discounts it to around $2.99 at 85% off, and it has been tracked as low as about $3.38 elsewhere.
| Price | At 20 hours | Worth it? |
|---|---|---|
| $19.99 list | $1.00 per hour | No. Not for a game with no announced future |
| $29.99 Special Edition | $1.50 per hour | Definitely not |
| $2.99 sale | $0.15 per hour | Yes, if you have friends to play with |
One reviewer put playtime at twenty hours or more, which is what the table above uses. Your mileage depends entirely on whether you can find matches, and that in turn depends on your region and the time of day.
Buy, wait or skip
| You are | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Buying at full price | No | $19.99 for an always online game with no Season 10 and roughly 180 concurrent Steam players |
| Bringing a group of friends | Buy in a deep sale | At around $3 with a full lobby of people you know, this is a genuinely fun few evenings |
| Playing solo, hoping to matchmake | Check first | Crossplay helps enormously but the pool is small. Queue times vary heavily by region and hour |
| You refunded it in 2022 over matchmaking | That specific issue is solved | Crossplay arrived February 2024. Whether enough people remain is the new question |
| You want a Dragon Ball game with a future | Skip and wait | Xenoverse 3 was announced in April 2026 for a 2027 release |
| Averse to gacha in a paid game | Skip | Never changed and never will now |
| You want something you will still own in five years | Skip | No offline mode. When the servers close there is nothing left to play |
Verdict: an interesting idea that was priced wrong, monetised wrong and arrived without the one feature it needed. Dimps did fix the matchmaking, added nine seasons of raiders and gave the game a fair run, which is more effort than the 53 Metascore implies. It was not enough. With no Season 10, no place on Bandai Namco's own active list and under 200 concurrent Steam players, this is a game in its final chapter rather than its middle. At around three dollars with friends it is still a fun novelty for a weekend. At list price, with no offline mode and no announced future, it is not a purchase we can recommend.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dragon Ball: The Breakers shutting down?
No shutdown has been announced. Bandai Namco has issued no statement, no closure date and no end of support notice, and the servers are running. However, the last major update was July 2025, no Season 10 exists, and the game was left off Bandai Namco's promotional list of active Dragon Ball titles in July 2026. Reports claiming the closure is confirmed are inaccurate.
Does it have crossplay?
Yes. Crossplay was added in Season 5 on 27 February 2024 and covers Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. It can be toggled on or off, though players with different settings cannot match together. Launch-era articles saying there is no crossplay are out of date.
Can I play it offline or solo?
No. It is always online with no offline mode and no single player campaign. A constant connection is required.
How many people still play it?
Steam monthly averages in 2026 have run roughly between 75 and 180 concurrent players, against an all time peak of 4,053. Console figures are not published, so the real total is higher.
Is it pay to win?
Not outright, but it is not purely cosmetic either. Z-Fighters with different skills and damage values come from the Spirit Siphon gacha, so spending improves your options. This was the most common criticism at launch and it was never changed.
How much does it cost?
$19.99 for the standard edition and $29.99 for the Special Edition, but it discounts heavily and has been seen around $2.99 at 85% off. Do not pay list price.
What platforms is it on?
PC via Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch. The install is small at about 6.2 GB.
Is it like Dead by Daylight?
Yes, that is the clear template. Reviewers compared the two constantly and generally concluded The Breakers did not match it on controls, balance or monetisation.
Where to go next
- From the same rough year, our Dolmen review and Kamiwaza Way of the Thief review.
- For another multiplayer game that was fixed and still lost its audience, read our Battlefield 2042 review.
- On live service games that were simply switched off, see the live service graveyard.
- For one that survived instead, our The Division 2 review.
- If you want atmospheric single player horror rather than multiplayer hide and seek, try Saturnalia or SIGNALIS.
- On why publishers keep bolting gacha onto paid games, read why AAA games are not fun anymore.
- Browse the Multiplayer, Action, Survival and Horror hubs.
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