Baldur’s Gate 3 hit a new all-time peak concurrent player record today, surpassing 875,000 players online on Aug. 13, a little over a week after its official release date, as the Dungeons & Dragons game’s immense success continues to snowball.
The Larian Studios title has the seventh-highest number of peak players in the history of Steam, at the time of writing, passing the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, Goose Goose Duck, and Apex Legends. It’s trailing behind New World, Elden Ring, Dota 2, Lost Ark, CSGO, and PUBG, but if things keep up, it could overtake some too.
In addition to being a commercial success, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a critical success too. It is the second-best PC title of all time, based on its Metacritic score, which is sitting at 97 as of today. The only title ahead of it is Disco Elysium, which shares the same score.
Players are doing all they can to hit the one million mark, but they’re still surprised to see it doing so well.
One player said the fact it keeps breaking its own record days after launch is “crazy.” They never thought a turn-based RPG could have this kind of success, and believe it might even win Game of the Year. Another agreed, explaining that it comes down to how much depth it has.
Baldur’s Gate 3 also takes a long time to beat. 75 hours and 100 hours to complete, to be exact, and more than 200 hours for those who want to leave no stone unturned. That is likely to be a contributing factor. A lot of people who started playing at launch are still knee-deep in campaigns. Those who finished could be starting another with a different class or origin.
Given all the hype, plenty of new players are also hopping on board to see what it’s about, further adding to the peak player count. At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it break its own record again and hit the one million mark soon.
Published: Aug 13, 2023 08:30 pm