Baldur’s Gate 3 dethrones CSGO on Steam and defies Larian expectations

06.08.2023 - 10:53 / pcgamesn.com / Swen Vincke

Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to break records and defy expectations, as the Larian RPG game has once again broken a massive concurrent players record and skyrocketed all the way up the Steam charts. Our Baldur’s Gate 3 review already sings the game’s praises, but the work and dedication also speaks for itself, as Baldur’s Gate 3 dominates Steam and the internet as a whole.

I’ve already spent around 30 hours with the game, the first few of which were dedicated to choosing my race and Baldur’s Gate 3 class, and I can safely say we’ve got an all-timer on our hands. The rest of the internet agrees as the Steam numbers don’t lie.

If you thought the initial Baldur’s Gate 3 launch success was already impressive, the fantasy game is continuing to shatter all expectations. We’re now looking at a concurrent player peak of 712,281 players, which has risen by around 200,000 since we last checked when the game launched earlier this week. Will BG3 reach one million? Only time will tell.

That’s not all though, as BG3 has done the impossible and dethroned Valve’s CSGO for the global top seller spot (but not concurrent players). That’s right, Baldur’s Gate 3 is at the top of the Steam charts right now. The Baldur’s Gate 3 bear scene reveal already helped Larian’s adventure rocket up the charts in early access, but the momentum has now propelled BG3 all the way to the top.

When BG3 hit 500,000 concurrents game director Swen Vincke said they should “Probably should stay away from the IT team for a while – told them they should expect like 100k or so at max.” Sorry, Vincke, we may have destroyed your expectations (it’s for good reason though, promise).

BG3 has also already managed to crash multiple online platforms and forums because so many people were playing it, proving that single-player experiences are still very much desired, which isn’t a massive surprise.

I doubt Baldur’s Gate 3 will stay on top of CSGO forever, and the colossal concurrent player numbers are going to plateau at some point, but it’s still incredibly impressive. To put it into some perspective, Cyberpunk 2077 peaked at over one million during launch, and Elden Ring came up to an incredible 950,000 last year, so BG3 is doing an incredible job of catching them up on Steam.

If, like me, you’re new to the world of BG3 and D&D and want some history primers we’ve got all the Baldur’s Gate 3 lore you’ll ever need. We’ve also got everything you need to know about the Baldur’s Gate 3 max level to help you rise up the ranks.

Data from Steam and SteamDB.