Is Rocket League Still Worth Playing In 2022?

Crazy, quirky and wholly unique, Rocket League is a game you can never forget—even if you’ve only picked it up once. From its fast-paced thrills to its bombastic gameplay and visuals, the team at Psyonix really struck gold with this game when it released in 2015. 

But after 7 years, one question looms: is it still worth playing today? Well, let’s find out.

What Is Rocket League?

In short, Rocket League is football with rocket-powered cars. But in reality, it’s much more than that. It’s clutch saves, it’s mid-air vehicular pirouettes, it’s lightning-fast action, it’s tight team play and it’s incredible competitive games.

To give a slightly more concrete summary, a round of Rocket League will see you and your teammates drive full pelt into a massive ball in the hopes of smacking it into the enemy goal. With the other team working towards the exact same objective.

The controls are simple; drive, turn, jump, boost and drift. But mastering them has a satisfyingly high skill ceiling which will keep you entertained for hundreds of hours.

While it’s focused on competitive online games, there are plenty of training drills and matches against AI opponents which can help you learn the ropes. And what’s more, you can bring your friends through local co-op, which is an absolute blast. 

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What’s Changed?

After five years on the market, Rocket League took the bold move of going free-to-play. Meaning you can now get your hands on it without dropping a penny. This has helped to keep the community full of new players, even this many years down the line.

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In terms of moment-to-moment gameplay, the formula has seen some patches and tweaks but overall remains the same unchained joyride that it was on release date.

Despite few gameplay changes, the dev team have worked hard to introduce a variety of new modes and quality of life features for players. From free-roam practice options to a fully functional reporting system for aggressive teammates.

Tournament mode has also been tweaked to allow you to both take part in official tournaments and host your own.

And, finally, Psyonix have gone full throttle with the timed game-modes, which provide tweaked versions of the game with whacky variations in the form of crazy power-ups, altered mechanics and more.

It Still Has A Strong Player Base

After going free-to-play in 2020, the player base slowly rose to its peak in July 2021, with nearly 100 million unique players jumping into the rocket-powered soccer every month.

While player counts have dwindled slightly compared to those incredible figures, the game still has an incredibly strong player count. With Steam reporting an average daily peak of 40,000 players.

While there is a rift between these two figures, the key thing to know is that this is plenty of players to keep the game healthy—providing healthy variation in opponents while keeping fast matchmaking times.

It Has A Committed eSports Scene

The Rocket League Championships of 2021-2022 attracted an astonishing crowd of 280,000 viewers—and that wasn’t even the World Championship event!

Of course, this number is a little lower than the top-dogs of eSports, such as League of Legends, but that is understandable given that Rocket League is a game that stands in a genre of its own.

Rocket League is also one of the more accessible eSports titles, given it is rated E for Everyone. This attracts players of all different age groups, while also being the perfect seedbed for a variety of brand sponsorships—which, in the past, have included BMW, Lamborghini, 7-Eleven and plenty more.

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Not to mention, that if you go all-in on competitive Rocket League, you could find yourself duking it out for the next prize pool of over $6 million. If you’re looking to rise up the ranks and pay with the best, consider getting some rocket league boosting to supercharge your development! 

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There’s Nothing Else Like It

The simplest reason to play Rocket League is that it’s a totally unique experience. Sure it’s kind of like a driving game, and it’s kind of like a soccer game, but thanks to its unique genre mash-up, playful mechanics and downright whacky concept, it is a game in a genre of its own.

In fact, the game is so unique that plenty of other games have tried to recreate its success in their own way—such as Overwatch’s Summer Lucio ball game mode, which is essentially Rocket League in Overwatch but (understandably) nowhere near as good.

In short, Rocket League offers up a style of game which is like nothing else. The thrills, tense gameplay, fun teamwork and accessibility allow it to appeal to a wide player base which remains strong to this day. So, yes, it is definitely still worth playing in 2022.

And, ultimately, if you’ve made it this far chances are you should give it a go. After all, it’s totally free to play!

Jonathon Spire

Jonathon Spire

Tech Blogger at Jonathon Spire

My diverse background started with my computer science degree, and later progressed to building laptops and accessories. And now, for the last 7 years, I have been a social media marketing specialist and business growth consultant.

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Jonathon Spire

I blog about a range of tech topics.

For the last 7 years I have been a social media marketing specialist and business growth consultant, so I write about those the most.

Full transparency: I do review a lot of services and I try to do it as objectively as possible; I give honest feedback and only promote services I believe truly work (for which I may or may not receive a commission) – if you are a service owner and you think I have made a mistake then please let me know in the comments section.

– Jon