Quick answer: Knockout City's official servers shut down permanently on 6 June 2023 and the game is gone forever on PlayStation, Xbox and Switch. But Velan Studios did something almost no studio does: it built a free standalone Private Server Edition, gave it away, and let the game outlive its own business. That version is on Steam now, costs nothing, and unlocks nearly every cosmetic and mode. The catch is population. Steam concurrents sit in the low single digits most of the time. Bring friends, or do not bother.
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
Most dead live service games simply vanish. Servers off, store page gone, your purchase quietly converted into nothing. Knockout City is the rare exception, and the reason it is worth writing about in 2026 has less to do with dodgeball than with what Velan Studios did on the way out.
They gave the game away. Not a trimmed demo. A standalone build with the servers included, free, so anyone could keep playing without them. Then the studio went to a games industry conference and told other developers to do the same.
What it was, and how good it actually was
Knockout City was a team based dodgeball brawler, or "dodgebrawl" in Velan's own phrasing. You threw, faked, curved shots around cover, lobbed over obstacles and caught incoming balls on a tight timing window. The signature move let you ball up, turning into a dodgeball yourself so a teammate could pick you up and fire you across the map as a human projectile.
Special balls kept it varied. The Bomb Ball forced panic throws before detonating, the Moon Ball floated, the Multi Ball handed you rapid fire ammunition. Modes covered 3v3 Team KO, Diamond Dash and 1v1 Face Off, across maps with warping pipes and rotating plazas.
Critics liked it a great deal, which the draft version of this article summarised only as "strongly positive". The actual numbers are better than that.
| Source | Score | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Metacritic | 80 PC, 83 Switch, 83 Xbox One, 82 Xbox Series, 80 PS4 | Generally Favorable across the board |
| OpenCritic | 81, rated Strong, 69% recommend | 63 critics. Top 17% of all games on the site |
| Standout reviews | IGN 9/10, PC Gamer 90, Game Informer 8.5/10 | GamesRadar 4.5/5, Nintendo Life 9/10 |
| Metacritic users | 7.1 | small sample of 83 ratings |
This was not a game that failed because it was bad. It failed because it could not hold onto the enormous audience it attracted.
Twelve million players was not enough
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
The launch was genuinely enormous. A ten day free trial window helped it reach two million players within four days and five million within two weeks, with over half a billion knockouts recorded in that fortnight alone. By the time it closed, Velan put the lifetime figure at more than twelve million players and billions of knockouts.
None of that converted into retention. By the time of the shutdown announcement, Steam daily figures had reportedly settled in the low hundreds.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 21 May 2021 | Launches as an EA Original on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch, with a ten day free trial. PS5 and Xbox Series follow on 2 November |
| Mid 2022 | Goes free to play with Season 6. Velan takes over publishing from EA |
| 3 February 2023 | Game director Jeremy Russo announces Season 9 will be the last, and the shutdown date |
| 28 February 2023 | Season 9 begins. All real money transactions switched off. PlayStation delisting follows |
| 25 April 2023 | Private Hosted Server Edition released free on Velan's own website, before the servers even closed |
| 23 May 2023 | Final two week farewell event, "Thanks for the KOs" |
| 6 June 2023, 12:00 UTC | All official servers permanently shut down. Console versions become unplayable past the title screen |
| March 2024 | At GDC, Velan marketing director Josh Harrison urges other studios to ship private server builds when sunsetting |
| 24 May 2024 | Private Server Edition arrives on Steam, making installation a single click |
Russo's explanation was unusually candid. Despite twelve million players, he wrote, "there are several aspects of the game in need of major disruption to better attract and retain enough players to be sustainable", and as a small independent studio Velan could not rebuild those systems while also running the live game.
What the Private Server Edition actually includes
This is the part that matters, and it is far more generous than most sunset gestures.
- Free on Steam, no purchase and no account required. Windows only.
- Nearly everything unlocked, including the vast majority of cosmetics. Licensed crossover items, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles content, are the main exclusion.
- All modes and playlists from across the game's history, including the seasonal event variants.
- Host for friends, play on a LAN, or play against bots solo.
- Local progression still functions, with street rank and contracts intact.
- Nothing carries over from the live game, and there are no achievements.
Console players get nothing. Knockout City is permanently unplayable on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch, and has been since 6 June 2023. There is no private server build for consoles and there will not be one. Any site selling or offering a console copy in 2026 is misleading you.
How to actually play it
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
1. Install Knockout City Private Server Edition from Steam. It is free and it is the only legitimate source.
2. Do not expect online play from pressing Launch. The client still points at the dead official addresses by default, which is the single most common source of confusion for new installs.
3. For bots or a private game with friends, open the game's install folder and run the bundled server executable first. That starts a local server for the client to connect to. Bot matches fill the remaining slots.
4. For public games, the remaining community organises through a fan made launcher and an associated Discord that lists active community hosted servers.
On the community launcher. It is a third party fan project, not made or endorsed by Velan, and it is not distributed through Steam. Velan's own GDC talk did acknowledge that a community member built a launcher to make joining private servers easier, so it is a known part of the ecosystem rather than something obscure. Even so, treat any third party executable with normal caution, find it through the game's Steam community hub or the official subreddit rather than a search result, and understand that the Steam version alone is enough for bots and private games with friends.
How many people actually play it
Honestly, very few, and this is where expectations need managing carefully.
Steam concurrent figures for the Private Server Edition have run at roughly four to six players on average through 2026, with monthly peaks typically between about 20 and 37. The all time peak for this edition is in the same range. Steam user reviews sit at Mostly Positive, around 77%, from fewer than a hundred reviews.
Two caveats on those numbers. First, Steam concurrents only count people running the client through Steam at that moment, and much of the remaining community plays through the fan launcher or on scheduled community nights, so the true active figure is higher than the chart shows. Some community trackers estimate low hundreds globally, though that figure is not independently verifiable. Second, this is a self hosted game, so a healthy private lobby with friends is unaffected by the public population entirely. Claims that the game has nightly full public matches should be treated sceptically. Claims that it is unplayable are also wrong.
Why this matters beyond one dodgeball game
At GDC in March 2024, Velan's director of marketing Josh Harrison gave a talk arguing that studios closing live service games should release a private hosted version as a matter of course. He noted that small communities were still running daily games and organising their own tournaments with their own prize pools months after shutdown.
Harrison was also honest about why Velan could do it. The studio was not collapsing, so it could spare a team briefly, and Knockout City's internal development builds already worked much like a private server build would, which made it "a relatively light lift". That caveat matters, because it explains why this is not trivially repeatable for every studio.
Set it against what usually happens. Our Dragon Ball The Breakers review covers a game drifting towards the same fate with no offline fallback at all, and our LEGO Brawls review looks at another party game running on fumes. Knockout City is the one that planned for its own ending.
What still holds it back
The population is tiny. Public matchmaking in any meaningful sense does not exist. If you cannot bring people, you are playing bots.
Setup is not one click. Running a server executable before launching the game is a step most players will not guess at, and the client's default behaviour actively misleads.
Windows only. No console, no official Steam Deck support, no Mac.
No new content, ever. What shipped is what exists. Velan has said it may return to the universe when the time is right, but has explicitly declined to promise it.
The skill gap is brutal for newcomers. The people still playing have years of practice in a game with a genuinely high ceiling. Catching is a timing window, not a button.
Play, try or skip
| You are | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Able to gather three or more friends on PC | Play it | Free, nearly fully unlocked, and the game is excellent in a full private lobby |
| Curious and playing alone | Try the bots | Costs nothing and works offline once you start the local server. A fair way to see the mechanics |
| Hoping for public matchmaking | Skip | Steam concurrents are in the single digits most of the day |
| On any console | Not possible | Permanently unplayable since June 2023 with no workaround |
| Uncomfortable with third party launchers | Steam only is fine | You still get bots, LAN and private games with friends without installing anything else |
| Interested in game preservation | Worth your time | This is the reference example of a live service shutdown handled properly |
| Expecting a thriving competitive scene | Adjust expectations | Small organised community events exist. A populated ranked ladder does not |
Verdict: Knockout City was one of the most original competitive games of its generation, scoring in the low eighties with an OpenCritic rating in the top 17% of everything that site tracks, and it died because twelve million players would not stay. What makes it worth installing in 2026 is not nostalgia but the decision Velan made on the way out. The Private Server Edition is free, nearly complete, and genuinely playable with friends or against bots. Go in knowing the public population is tiny and that console owners are locked out for good. If you have three friends and a Windows PC, this costs nothing and is still brilliant.
Frequently asked questions
Can you still play Knockout City?
On Windows PC, yes, through the free Private Server Edition on Steam. You can host for friends, play on a LAN, play against bots, or join community hosted servers. On PlayStation, Xbox and Switch it has been permanently unplayable since 6 June 2023.
Why did Knockout City shut down?
Retention. Game director Jeremy Russo said that despite more than twelve million players, several systems needed major rebuilding to keep players, and a small independent studio could not do that while running the live game at the same time.
Is the Private Server Edition really free?
Yes, completely free on Steam with no purchase required, and with nearly all cosmetics and every mode unlocked. Licensed crossover items are the main exception.
Can I play solo or offline?
Yes. Start the bundled server executable from the install folder and you can play any mode against bots without other people.
Does my old progress carry over?
No. The Private Server Edition is standalone and nothing transfers from the live game. Almost everything is unlocked from the start anyway, and there are no achievements.
How many people still play?
Very few. Steam concurrents have averaged roughly four to six through 2026 with monthly peaks around 20 to 37. Some of the community plays through a fan launcher that Steam does not count, so the real figure is somewhat higher, but this is a game for organised groups rather than drop in matchmaking.
Will the official servers ever come back?
No plans have been announced. Velan has said it may return to the Knockout City universe when the time is right, while explicitly declining to promise that it will.
Are free download sites for this game safe?
There is no reason to use one. The legitimate game is free on Steam. Archives claiming to be Knockout City installers or updaters are a common malware disguise, and one giveaway is a date that predates the game's May 2021 release entirely.
Where to go next
- For a multiplayer game heading the same way without a safety net, read our Dragon Ball The Breakers review.
- Another party game running on a handful of players: our LEGO Brawls review.
- For the opposite outcome, a studio reversing its own shutdown, see our Destiny 2 review.
- On live service games switched off without ceremony, see the live service graveyard.
- For co-op that still has a real population, read our PAYDAY 2 review.
- And one that was repaired but lost its crowd anyway: our Battlefield 2042 review.
- On why so many of these games end this way, read why AAA games are not fun anymore.
- Browse the Multiplayer, Action and Adventure hubs.
Subscribe to us on YouTube for more gameplay breakdowns and reviews: ClubAssassins on YouTube.