- Crimson Desert has become the best-selling paid title on Steam ahead of the game’s launch on March 19th.
- The open-world title has overtaken the likes of Slay the Spire 2 and Resident Evil Requiem.
- The game previously crossed 3 million wishlists across all platforms, underscoring its hype.
Hype for Crimson Desert has gone through the roof ever since the game’s brilliant performance demo on the PlayStation 5 Pro and PC. Analysts have now predicted that the upcoming open-world title could become the second-best-selling game of 2026 behind GTA 6, thanks to its overwhelming depth.
Crimson Desert has been at the end of some criticism, however, for its use of Denuvo. Pearl Abyss has claimed it won’t affect performance, and it doesn’t seem to have put players off, as the title has shot up to the top of the Steam charts ahead of its release.
Why it matters: An ambitious effort like Crimson Desert, built in a studio’s own new engine, getting this level of success and attention is a positive sign for the gaming industry.
Ahead of its launch, Crimson Desert has become the best-selling paid title on Steam’s global top sellers chart. The open-world game is currently ranked no. 2 on the best-sellers list, only behind Counter-Strike 2, a free-to-play title.
Furthermore, Crimson Desert has overtaken Slay the Spire 2, the biggest launch of 2026 so far, with more than 500k concurrent users, and the fan-favorite Resident Evil Requiem, which has shipped more than 6 million copies globally.
Considering how the Pearl Abyss title crossed 3 million wishlists weeks before launch, this sales performance on Steam is not surprising to see. Moreover, Crimson Desert seems to be brilliantly optimised for PC’s, as the minimum GPU required to play the game is the decade-old GTX 1060.
If that doesn’t sell you on the title, Pearl Abyss has promised that Crimson Desert will run at native 4K 60 FPS without requiring DLSS support thanks to their optimisation.
With a map twice as big as Skyrim and so much content that even developers can’t figure out how long it’ll take to beat the game, Crimson Desert is set to launch for PC and consoles on March 19th.
Do you think Crimson Desert is going to be a commercial and critical success or will the game fail to deliver? Tell us in the comments below or head to the Tech4Gamers forum for discussion.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devoutly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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