The Finals Season 7: Player Surge, Destructible Maps, and the Strangest FPS Support Gadget Yet

This week’s Season 7 update for The Finals instantly caught my attention-and not just because I’m a sucker for FPS chaos and weird gadgets. After months of watching this game’s player numbers crater, it’s refreshing to see an unfashionably creative shooter clawing its way back from the brink. But is Season 7’s “The Divide” actually a turning point, or just another short-term spike on the Steam charts?

The Finals Season 7 – What “The Divide” Update Actually Changes

• Season 7: The Divide brings a wild new destructible map, Nozomi/Citadel, that’s half-game show, half-hacker warzone.
• Player counts jumped nearly 50% overnight, from a beleaguered baseline up to ~29,000 concurrents.
• Oddball gadgets like the Breach Drill and H+ Infuser shift teamplay-finally, support mains get a reason to smile (or yell).
• This is live-service course correction: Embark is committed to carving out a niche, not chasing Call of Duty numbers.

Feature	Specification
Publisher	Embark Studios
Release Date	June 12, 2024 (Season 7)
Genres	Free-to-play FPS, Live Service
Platforms	PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

The numbers say a lot-The Finals lost a whopping 83% of its launch Steam player base in under six months, going from a January high approaching a quarter million down to a dedicated, if much smaller, crowd. If you’ve dipped in since launch, you’ll know why: after the initial adrenaline rush, it settled into a rocky rhythm, with lobbies sometimes feeling like ghost towns. But as of Season 7, the game’s pulse is quickening again, and that’s not by accident.

Here’s what’s actually in this update worth talking about. Nozomi/Citadel isn’t just another Unreal Engine greybox—it’s a spectacle that leans into The Finals’ weirdness: a split-down-the-middle, lore-laden arena that oozes The Running Man energy, but with genuine destruction. (Red Faction fans, you finally get a spiritual successor, even if it’s not as janky!) In a world where “destructible environments” usually means crumbling drywall with a canned animation, it’s satisfying watching walls and cover actually get obliterated mid-fight—and having strategies that revolve around this chaos.

The support gadgets are hilarious, too. The H+ Infuser lets you literally shoot your teammates with healing—not lob a medpack and pray someone picks it up (looking at you, Marvel Rivals). As someone whose squads treat medics like an inconvenience, this is the best kind of passive-aggressive support weapon: “You will accept my healing, whether you like it or not.” The Breach Drill is straight out of an FPS fever dream, burrowing through surfaces to catch that last loot out of a vault. It’s silly, and it rules—and most importantly, it gives team compositions a real shake-up.

None of these changes are silver bullets, of course. “Live-service recovery arc” is a tough trick: plenty of shooters roll out seasonal content that gives the population a sugar high, only to slump weeks later. But Embark Studios seems to have recognized what works for them—leaning into what makes The Finals weird, frenetic, and fun, rather than chasing whatever meta is dominating Call of Duty or Valorant that month. And judging by the near-50% jump in concurrent players on Steam, players are responding.

Will this be enough to restore early glory? Maybe not, but that’s not the point. The Finals is learning (sometimes painfully) that it serves a smaller, more dedicated crowd that wants something absurd and chaotic from their shooters—stuff you don’t get in the big studio pipeline these days. This update does exactly that: it rewards regulars, makes the occasional dip-in worthwhile again, and—crucially—tells everyone Embark isn’t abandoning their oddball vision.

Why This Matters for Real Gamers

If you bounced off The Finals after launch, now’s honestly a good time for a second look—especially if you like your FPS matches unpredictable and full of shenanigans. The inventive maps and gadgets mean actual meta shifts each season, instead of the same old grind. And the rise in player counts isn’t just a stat—fuller lobbies mean less queue time, better matchmaking, and a less stagnant game overall.

I’m genuinely rooting for this kind of game: something unafraid to be silly, unpredictable, and player-driven rather than just another polished, corporate shooter. We need more of those. If The Finals keeps doubling down on its anarchic live-events, gadgets, and destruction, it could fill that Titanfall 2-shaped hole in the FPS scene—at least for people willing to embrace a little chaos.

TL;DR: The Finals Season 7 is the Weird Comeback You Didn’t Expect

Season 7’s “The Divide” isn’t about catching up to genre titans, but doubling down on what makes The Finals unique: unironic destructible arenas, gadgets straight from a fever dream, and live-service updates that actually shake things up. For FPS fans craving something less predictable, this is absolutely worth your bandwidth—at least until the next round of chaos drops.