Summary
Baldur’s Gate 3is closing in onHogwarts Legacy’srecord number of concurrent Steam players. This development illustrates how the fandom has been quick to embrace Larian Studios' latest title as soon asBaldur’s Gate 3released to rave reviewson August 3.
Following a prolongedperiod ofHogwarts Legacy’sdominant Steam sales, Avalanche Software’s hitHarry PotterRPG still holds the title of the biggest 2023 launch on Valve’s platform. Days into its release,Hogwarts Legacypeaked at 879,000 concurrent Steam players, thus also becoming WB Games' biggest PC launch in the publisher’s history.
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Some six months later,Baldur’s Gate 3finds itself within reach of that impressive record, as Larian’s newest RPG boasted 814,666 concurrent Steam players during its launch weekend, according to public account data scraped by SteamDB. Since AAA games historically hit their player peaks early into their market debuts, it’s dubious whetherBaldur’s Gate 3will actually manage to surpassHogwarts Legacyin the coming days. After all, even the current record holder slowed down after 72 hours, withHogwarts Legacy’splayer count experiencing a dramatic dropin the weeks that followed its release.
One important distinction between the launch ofHogwarts LegacyandBaldur’s Gate 3is that the latter has so far been limited to Steam and GOG, whereas the former included Steam, Epic Games Store, and current-gen consoles. Meaning thatHogwarts Legacy’searly Steam figures were likely diluted by the game’s wider availability, while theBaldur’s Gate 3numbers are a better representation of its current popularity.
But even just being in the same ballpark as one of the most universally appealing games of the year is an astonishing achievement forBaldur’s Gate 3, not least because classic CRPGs are a much smaller niche compared to open-world role-playing games that focus on action. The immense success ofBaldur’s Gate 3has also inspired hope among the genre’s aficionados that Larian’s latest title will usher in a return of high-budget CRPGs, the type of games that mainstream publishers have largely ignored since the early 2000s.
The game’s current commercial momentum could also help convince Larian to consider committing to DLC for its acclaimed RPG, assuming post-launch content isn’t already in the works. No such expansion has been yet been announced, withBaldur’s Gate 3’sboss recently revealingthat the studio still hasn’t decided on its next project. The first twoBaldur’s Gategames had both received one major expansion each about a year into their respective releases. However, that track record might not mean much two decades later, especially seeing how Larian has historically preferred delivering complete experiences followed by the occasional definitive edition, but no extensive post-launch content support.
Baldur’s Gate 3is available now on PC and launches September 6 on PS5, with an Xbox Series X/S port also being in development.
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