Baldur’s Gate 3 sets new player record as Steam community comes together
Larian StudiosBaldur’s Gate 3 has surpassed its previous concurrent player record on Steam by over 60,000, and players are now joining forces to take things even further.
Baldur’s Gate 3 had a stellar launch in August 2023 as the game received an overwhelmingly positive response from players. The game broke several records, easily becoming one of the most-played games on Steam. Three days after its official release, Steam saw an impressive peak in the number of concurrent players for Baldur’s Gate 3.
The developers expected no more than 100,000 players at best but were surprised to see the numbers go over 500,000 at launch alone. Baldur’s Gate 3 outranked Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as the highest-rated game on Metacritic in 2023, even as trolls started to review bomb the game on the site.
Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to gain more players after its release. The game placed ninth on Steam’s list of the top 10 concurrent players of all time. Now, fans are eager to hit the goal of 1 million concurrent players, as expressed in this Reddit post:
“It is time for us to put baldur’s gate 3 into legendary status by surpassing the 1 million concurrent players in steam,” the OP wrote. The top-voted comment in the thread reads, “I’m down. Tho I would of logged in regardless lol” indicating how eager the community is to promote the game.
Baldur’s Gate 3 broke its previous record of 814,666 players with a staggering 875,343 players playing the game. It’s just 4,000 players away from claiming Hogwarts Legacy‘s position in 8th place. One comment explained the game’s success quite well, “Pretty much 100% growth the 3-4 days following launch, then retaining a massive playerbase for another week. Ultimately, peaking again on week 2 @ 875k.”
The user also added, “I hope they hit 1MM concurrent!” It should be noted that the game is only out on PC right now, but it’s not exclusive to Steam, but GOG as well. One GOG player added, “I’m playing on GoG. I kinda regret not adding a number on here. Apes together strong.”
Fans also posted about the game’s success on Twitter, where they praised how much effort Larian Studios put into it. As one user put it, the game has so much content that even after 30 hours of playtime, you’d still be in Act 1 with much left to do.
“I’m still at Act 1 and I already have 30 hours,” they said, while another added, “60 hours in, and I’m just starting Act 2, lol.” In another tweet, a user praised how impactful your decisions are in the game. They explained, “The dialogue options and how even combat outcomes result in a branching of the story is just mind-blowing to me. The development effort for this must’ve been insane.”
Larian StudiosAnother post on Twitter reflected on how Baldur’s Gate 3 is “fully DRM free, even on Steam,” and “yet it’s still pulling insane numbers” on the platform. The post further explains that “a good game with good service will make a reasonably priced game purchase worthwhile for the vast majority.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 has turned out to be one of the year’s most successful launches. Larian Studios went all-in with the game and fans are happy with the results, as the game has rivaled some of the year’s biggest AAA releases.
For more on Baldur’s Gate 3, check out how to solve the Silent Library puzzle or find out how to level up fast in BG3.