It's time for yet another article about the impressive records being set by Baldur's Gate 3. The triple-A cRPG made by Larian Studios reached position #9 on Steam's all-time concurrent player chart, peaking at 814K players, just below Avalanche's Hogwarts Legacy, which also enjoyed incredible success earlier this year.
Mat Piscatella, Executive Director & Video Game Industry Analyst at Circana (NPD), shared some data on Twitter that shows Baldur's Gate 3 users playing over five hours per day since the August 3rd release. That's over 100 daily minutes more than Remnant II (another game that's quite popular since its late July launch) and nearly 200 minutes more than Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
From Circana's Player Engagement Tracker... Baldur's Gate III's engagement is wild. Currently over 300 daily minutes per DAU (top line in chart and yes, it includes idling), over 100 more minutes/day than Remnant II (middle line) and >2X CS:GO. https://t.co/88MmDOKo32 pic.twitter.com/aYcvFBFmKJ
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) August 14, 2023
Piscatella also released the following statement on Larian's newest game release in a chat with IGN.
Clearly, Baldur’s Gate 3 has broken into the mainstream in a way that no other cRPG recently has. Even when titles like Baldur’s Gate 2, Fallout, and Neverwinter Nights were a bigger part of the gaming landscape, I'm not sure we saw a breakout quite like this (at least so far). But given the expansion of the video game market since then and how popular other genres have become, it's refreshing to see a game like this get this kind of adoption and play.
Baldur's Gate 3 undoubtedly reached new heights for the cRPG genre, both in terms of the game itself as explained in our review and its unprecedented commercial popularity. After all, it is currently the all-time highest-rated PC game on the top review aggregate websites, Metacritic and OpenCritic. On one hand, its mainstream reach may open up a larger userbase for future cRPGs; on another hand, many industry workers have noted that it would be unwise to compare future cRPGs to Baldur's Gate 3, which had the benefit of an extremely beloved franchise and setting as well as an experienced developer and a large budget by cRPG standards. Even Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke has since suggested he'd like to work on a smaller project next.
It'll be interesting to see how Baldur's Gate 3 performs on console when it launches on September 6th. Meanwhile, the developer is working on a new hotfix, the first real patch, and a second update coming later. Among the various features, they've also confirmed to be looking into a way to allow users to customize their characters after they've entered the world of Faerûn.
If you're looking to expand your Baldur's Gate 3 experience, take a look at the list of the most exciting mods available to date.
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