Anticipation has been steadily building for Baldur’s Gate III following a well-received early access period, but just how big is this game going to be? Sure, CRPG fans are excited, but the CRPG genre is arguably a bit niche. Well, judging by early numbers, Larian Studios has a legit major hit on their hands.
On Day 1 of release, Baldur’s Gate III has already surpassed 450k concurrent users on Steam (peaking at 472,000 for now). That’s a figure the vast majority of games, even big ones, never achieve, nevermind right out of the box. Only a few recently-released games surpassed 450k players on Day 1, including Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy, and both of those were massive hits – Elden Ring has sold over 20 million copies and Hogwarts Legacy has sold over 15 million. To be rubbing shoulders with those types of games has to be considered a huge success for Baldur’s Gate III and Larian. Other stats also point to big BG3 success – over 450,000 folks are also viewing the game on Twitch at the time of this writing and it has a 90 percent approval rate on Steam.
Haven’t been keeping up with Baldur’s Gate III? While we don’t have a full review yet (codes went out late) Wccftech’s Francesco De Meo has posted a very positive review-in-progress…
“Being a game that can last 100 hours of playtime and above, not to mention all its replayability, it is impossible to score Baldur’s Gate III yet with only a fraction of that playtime. While Act 1 feels as polished as expected, it remains to be seen if the following acts maintain the same quality, especially when it comes to the world reacting to the player’s choices. As of now, however, I feel Larian Studios has done a tremendous job, creating one, if not the most engaging CRPG in a very long time. Hopefully, it will stay the same as I continue my journey in Faerûn to save my Gold Dwarf Barbarian or eventually turn into a dreaded mind flayer.”
Baldur’s Gate III is available now on PC. The PS5 version of the game arrives on September 6, and the Xbox Series X/S version likely won’t arrive until 2024 due to issues with getting co-op working on Series S.
