Step aside bears and combustible infernal legionnaires, Shadowheart reigns supreme in the Baldur’s Gate 3 romance scene as over half the player base has chosen her to be their lifelong partner in love (or crime, depending on who you’re asking).
On Dec. 5, Baldur’s Gate 3 developers posted a new breakdown of player statistics on X (formerly Twitter), detailing many interesting player facts, including which characters were romanced the most. Shadowheart, the troubled goth elf pursuing her destiny, has come out on top, with 51.3 percent of all players successfully romancing her. Karlach follows Shadowheart on the number two spot, and Lae’Zel somehow sits at number three, which is perhaps the most eerie BG3 fact I’ve ever heard.
It appears that not even all the memes surrounding the weird romancing of bears and lizard people could squash the domineering presence of Shadowheart. She is one of the origin characters that players can choose at the start to roleplay as or meet in the world and recruit as a permanent player-controlled companion. Her mission to become the warrior of Shar is a powerful and dynamic questline that could be one of the many reasons players opted for romancing her.
Other than mentioning the love interests of BG3 players, the developers also shared some other interesting information in their “Baldur’s Gate 3 in numbers” post. For example, 94 percent of players created a custom character to play as, collectively spending 8,196 years in the game’s character creation screen. Only about 1.3 million players actually completed the game, which is no surprise considering how massive the scope is. One could spend a hundred hours and still hang around with active main quests.
But perhaps the most loving fact, one genuinely imbued with pure, unfiltered loyalty (the like of which not even Lae’Zell possesses), is that Scratch has been pet nearly 50 million times. The white furball adds so much depth and character to any campsite, and its tragic backstory only puts more emotional weight on the players’ shoulders. Remember, even if Shadowheart turns you down, Scratch will always be there waiting with that big goofy smile on its face.
