Baldur’s Gate 3 Now Second Biggest 2023 Launch With 593K Steam Players

Baldur’s Gate 3 was in early access for several years, but the game was finally released on PC on August 3, 2023. Just as the game was released, it instantly reached over 250K concurrent players, which was already impressive.

However, these numbers did not stop rising, and the game has now reached over 590K concurrent players, making it the second-biggest Steam launch of 2023.

Why it matters: Baldur’s Gate 3 is an extremely important entry into the RPG genre. Many have even considered it a new standard for the genre, which would be hard for other developers to reach.

The biggest Steam launch of 2023 is still Hogwarts Legacy, as it had a concurrent player count of around 880K during its launch period.

Nearly a month before release, Baldur’s Gate 3 had already become the 3rd best-selling game on Steam. This foreshadowed an incredible launch for Larian Studios’ latest release, and the Steam numbers have not disappointed.

For comparison, highly rated games like Resident Evil 4 and Street Fighter 6 have not been able to reach half as many players on Steam. Additionally, Baldur’s Gate 3 is no slouch in terms of critical reception either.

At the time of writing, the game has a Metacritic score of 94. The user rating stands at 9.3, with over 120 positive reviews and just four negative reviews. Two of the negative reviews appear to be a mistake, as both had positive things to say about the title. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released on PS5 next month, and this will likely bring the game to even more players. Xbox Series S|X ports are also in development, but Larian Studios has not yet revealed release dates, suggesting they may arrive in 2024.

In addition to its popularity on Steam, the game’s mass appeal has led to an overwhelming load on Larian forums. The studio is working on addressing the issues with the forums and suggests users try other platforms like Discord for any questions.

Therefore, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been an undeniable success for the studio, and this success could make it a massive contender for Game of The Year in 2023.