The Baldur’s Gate 3 wave cannot be stopped as the game steamrolls well into its second month of dominance, holding off rival AAA titles Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 to take the top global sales spot on Steam.
The Larian Studios game stormed to the top of the charts upon release despite a quieter marketing campaign, with word of mouth assisting heavily in seeing the title stay ahead of Bethesda’s much-anticipated spacefaring RPG across both August and September.
On the global charts, only EA Sports FC 24 briefly dethroned BG3, moving it to the number two spot. Formerly of the FIFA franchise, EA’s new-look title launched less than ten days ago and is the latest entry in the yearly football simulation series.
It’s also seeing a mixed reception from players, sitting at just 55 percent positive reviews. Compared to BG3’s overwhelmingly positive reception, it’s likely this shift in top-selling positions is primarily due to EA Sports FC’s recency.
Even so, BG3 made a quick comeback, once again placing itself at the top of Steam’s global top-selling games. It seems that no one can conquer Larian’s behemoth D&D RPG, not even conglomerate yearly releases such as EA Sports FC.
The player numbers are more than telling of how well Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to perform despite its two-month-long run. It’s holding its ground in terms of concurrent player base at the number three spot on Steam Charts, outperformed only by perennial multiplayer titles Counter-Strike and Dota 2
It’s also keeping ahead of Cyberpunk 2077 at a margin of nearly 100,000 players despite the recently released Phantom Liberty expansion pack and the 2.0 update drastically improving the state of the title.
CDPR’s rough diamond has had a major uptick in players following Phantom Liberty, even briefly overtaking Larian’s beloved RPG. Still, BG3 has clawed back to the top and has smoothly maintained its position since. Though BG3 lost nearly 40 percent of its players in September, the game continues to perform marvelously and it seems that its rule as the supreme RPG will last well into 2024.
Considered to be the strongest candidate for this year’s Game Awards, BG3 has reshaped the gaming industry, proving that single-player games are still worth the investment. With the current state of the industry and its focus on online multiplayer, BG3 could be seen as a single-player messiah, with players continuously flocking to the fantastical world of Faerun.
