Baldur's Gate 3 Steam concurrent player counts beat top hits like Valheim and Apex Legends

[Daniel Sims]

The big picture: As the follow-up to a notoriously complex Dungeons & Dragons RPG, Baldur's Gate 3 might not be the most accessible game, but that didn't prevent a very successful launch week for Larian Studios' latest release. The turn-based fantasy RPG is already among Steam's most-played games and has yet to arrive on consoles.

Three days after exiting Early Access, Baldur's Gate 3 is the top-selling game on Steam and the second most-played title behind only Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Its over 700,000 concurrent players put it above evergreen titans like PUBG, Dota 2, and Apex Legends.

Furthermore, all-time peak player counts on SteamDB put Larian's latest RPG in ninth place overall, ahead of Valheim and right behind Hogwarts Legacy. The numbers make Baldur's Gate 3 easily the most successful Larian title on Steam, with seven times as many players as the critically lauded Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Sorry https://t.co/m2PxYBNNsl

– Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) August 3, 2023

One boost to the game's popularity is that it successfully gained Steam Deck verification within days of its launch. PC Gamer suggests portable users play the game in DirectX 11 at medium-to-low settings with the framerate capped at 30fps. Moreover, the outlet says conventional PCs with Nvidia GPUs should also use DX11, but Vulkan is better for AMD and Intel cards.

Steam alone doesn't represent all Baldur's Gate 3 players, as the game is also available on GOG and cloud streaming through GeForce NOW. The September 6 release on PlayStation 5 and Mac, and later launch on Xbox, could significantly add to the title's player base. Larian delayed the Xbox release to 2024 because it's struggling to optimize the two-player split-screen co-op mode for the Xbox Series S. Baldur's Gate 3 supports cross-save between all platforms.

One of the earliest signs that the game would be a hit is that Steam saw a spike in outage complaints on August 3. A primary likely reason for the server congestion is that Larian couldn't offer preloads for the 122 GB title, an unfortunate consequence of the Early Access program requiring everyone to download it almost simultaneously. Players who had tested the game for three years also had to delete and re-download everything.

Larian plans to add mod support to Baldur's Gate 3 at an unspecified date. The company also wants to make another Divinity game after taking a creative break.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/99681-baldur-gate-3-steam-concurrent-player-counts-beat.html

 

[amghwk]

As usual, I'll let the pre-order and Day 1 suckers buy first, and will wait for the 60 to 80% sale later this year or next year to get it. I have other backlogged games to play than spend another full price for another game. With luck, Epic Games might even release it for free next year during one of their Mystery giveaways.

 

[Kotters]

As usual, I'll let the pre-order and Day 1 suckers buy first, and will wait for the 60 to 80% sale later this year or next year to get it. I have other backlogged games to play than spend another full price for another game. With luck, Epic Games might even release it for free next year during one of their Mystery giveaways.

The game has no DRM and is available on GoG. You do not need to wait 6 months to play it, or use Tim Sweeney's bullshit.

 

[dangh]

It is best rpg you can get and probably best title until we will see divinity os3.

The game has no DRM and is available on GoG. You do not need to wait 6 months to play it, or use Tim Sweeney's bullshit.

While it's great to have gog release, @amghek simply didn't want to pay full price for this game and is willing to wait for a sale. Which store front you use do not really matter, and free titles on epic are great stuff anyway. I doubt though we will see bg3 for free anytime soon, I don't think even divinity has been offered this way.

 

[James Ryan]

As usual, I'll let the pre-order and Day 1 suckers buy first, and will wait for the 60 to 80% sale later this year or next year to get it. I have other backlogged games to play than spend another full price for another game. With luck, Epic Games might even release it for free next year during one of their Mystery giveaways.

You don't even need to. It's been in early access for a very very long time. I know people who've logged 100 hours just in that... It really is as good as you're seeing already.

 

[gamerk2]

I've got a few long-term RPGs I'm going through at the moment, but BG3 has absolutely jumped to the top of the "to do" pile.

 

[Gezzer]

As usual, I'll let the pre-order and Day 1 suckers buy first, and will wait for the 60 to 80% sale later this year or next year to get it. I have other backlogged games to play than spend another full price for another game. With luck, Epic Games might even release it for free next year during one of their Mystery giveaways.

Don't count on it. I pretty much swore off of EA games after Double Fine did their pump and dump. But this one I did and it was pretty obvious that it was going to be one h*ll of a game. I doubt you'll see a sale until purchases start to drop off. So maybe 2024, more than likely 2025 IMHO. As for Epic, not a chance. AFAIK they buy the games in bulk at a major discount and I don't see BG3 being affordable enough for that for quite awhile.
Sorry to burst your bubble.

 

[Gezzer]

Bought in to the EA the day it dropped. Put in 40+ hours and decided I didn't want to spoil it by playing too much so last EA play was DEC 2020. Well worth the wait, and even with the EA being full priced I've got no complaints. The game is great, especially if you play 5e TT. IMHO it's as close to 5e TT as a video game can come. I can easily see it being RPG of the year, even GotY. Though FF will certainly give it a run for its money. I can't recommend it enough.

 

[Kotters]

It is best rpg you can get and probably best title until we will see divinity os3.

While it's great to have gog release, @amghek simply didn't want to pay full price for this game and is willing to wait for a sale. Which store front you use do not really matter, and free titles on epic are great stuff anyway. I doubt though we will see bg3 for free anytime soon, I don't think even divinity has been offered this way.

You really missed the point.

 

[dangh]

You really missed the point.

Nah, you have missed the point - I simply do not acknowledge pitifulness of some people who thinks they are 'smart' because they steal.