Baldur's Gate III is already a huge hit, steam concurrent players are rising past 450k on day 1

Anticipation has been steadily building for Baldur's Gate III after 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 somewhat niche. Well, judging by the early numbers, Larian Studios has a legit big hit on their hands.

On day 1 of release, Baldur's Gate III has already passed 450,000 concurrent users on Steam (peak at 472,000 for now). It's a number that the vast majority of games, even big ones, never achieve, never mind out of the box. Only a few recently released games surpassed 450,000 players on day 1, including Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy, both of which were massive hits – Elden Ring has sold over 20 million copies and Hogwarts Legacy has sold over 15 million. Rubbing shoulders with that kind of game has to be considered a huge success for Baldur's Gate III and Larian. Other stats also point to huge BG3 success – over 450,000 people are also watching the game on Twitch as of this writing, and it has a 90 percent approval rate on Steam.

Have you missed Baldur's Gate III? While we don't have a full review yet (the codes were released late), Wccftech's Francesco De Meo has posted a very positive review in progress…

“As a game capable of 100+ hours of playtime, not to mention all the replayability, it's impossible to score Baldur's Gate III yet with just 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. For now though, 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 remain the same as I continue my journey in Faerûn to save my gold dwarf barbarian or eventually transform into a dreaded mind flayer.”

Baldur's Gate III is now available on PC. The PS5 version of the game will arrive on September 6, and the Xbox Series X/S version likely won't arrive until 2024 due to issues getting the co-op to work with the Series S.