Baldur’s Gate 3 proves unstoppable by cracking Steam’s top 10 biggest player-counts ever

Ethan Dean
Red Dragon in Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 has had a prolific launch. The game has shattered expectations and now it’s broken onto Steam’s highest all-time charts for player-count.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s stellar launch has propelled the game to ‘Phenomenon’ status. Players adore the unparalleled freedom of choice in the game and Larian’s pro-consumer attitude outside of it with their “Unfathomably based” take on microtransactions.

Its smooth technical performance means it can even run on the Steam Deck showing just how much time and effort has gone into the final product. The game is so well-loved that it instantly exceeded the developer’s expected player count by over five times on its first day of release.

Since then, it has only continued to blow up to over eight times their initial expectation of 100,000 concurrent players. This has rocketed Baldur’s Gate 3 into Steam’s top ten highest player peaks of all time.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has already hit number nine in Steam’s all-time highest number of concurrent players with a peak of 814,666. Usually held by competitive online games with dedicated fan bases, a number of single-player titles have recently broken through to the top ten.

Baldur’s Gate 3 now sits among giants like Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and Hogwarts Legacy. This achievement is sure to cement the game’s legacy and it will no doubt be in the conversation for game of the year in a few months time.

Fans of the new release couldn’t be happier for Larian and have sounded off on Twitter congratulating the development team. “They deserve every aspect of it and more. So happy for them,” one user said. “It’s a really well-crafted game and it shows,” another replied.

News of Baldur’s Gate 3’s success and positive reception is spreading. The game is now also the best-selling pre-order on the US PlayStation store ahead of its impending release on the platform.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is already playable on PC and will launch for the PS5 on September 6 but owners of the Digital Deluxe edition can start playing early on September 3.

There’s no telling whether the game will see the same success on PlayStation but in the absence of Starfield, PS5 owners may need an RPG to tide them over. Will Baldur’s Gate 3 be it?

Related Topics

About The Author

Ethan Dean is a Staff Writer on the Australian Dexerto team. He graduated from RMIT with a Bachelors Degree in Journalism and has been freelance writing in the gaming space ever since. His favorite game is the third-person, open world flavor of the month and when he doesn't have a controller in his hands, there's a paintbrush in them. He's a self-described Warhammer nerd and a casual DnD player too. You can contact Ethan at ethan.dean@dexerto.com