Early Access is being more consistently adopted by small and big teams in the gaming world today. A lot of games are giving players a chance to get in early and see an experience grow over time, but apparently if you're a developer you shouldn't leave your game sitting in Early Access for more than 9 months if you want to see it grow.
That's according to NewZoo (via Insider Gaming), which took a long look at all the games in Early Access and analysed how their performance went as time went on. Player retention is very strong for the first 4-6 and 7-9 months following an Early Access launch, but swiftly drops off over time. The statistics do show a pick up after months 22-24, but this was apparently driven by outliers such as V Rising and Ready or Not.
A 6-month window is seen as the sweet spot for if you want players to stick around and have more people come in once the game is ready for 1.0. Of course, Baldur's Gate III sticks out as an example of a game that spent years in Early Access and still impressed people, but games like that are seen as the exception to the rule according to NewZoo's data.
Hades II is set to launch out of Early Access next week, and we'll have to see if it can also break the rule, or if it should have waited a little while before joining the Early Access releases.