Baldur’s Gate 3’s returning player count puts Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy to shame

Is it the romance that keeps everyone coming back?

A character wearing red and gold robes and adorned in blue gems holds a finger up in a workshop.
Image via Larian Studios

Gamers just want to be loved and Baldur’s Gate 3 is proving just that to be true. While love is in the air, Larian Studio’s huge RPG sequel is excelling to heights not even Elden Ring—2022’s game of the year—could reach.

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Players have continued to flock to play Baldur’s Gate 3, with the game climbing to a whopping 700,000 players almost an entire month after its official release, according to new Steam data shared via Reddit. The success instantly shows when compared to the biggest PC gaming releases in single-player history.

Cyberpunk 2077 might have had a rough launch, but it was still the biggest single-player PC release on Steam peaking with more than one million players on launch, However, this was short-lived as it quickly dwindled to less than 200,000 players in the same time that Baldur’s Gate 3 has maintained more than triple.

Even Hogwarts Legacy which debuted at the beginning of the year and swelled to over 800,000 players fell victim to a similar trend as Cyberpunk. In the 26 days after launch, it also melted to less than 100,000 players.

The only single-player title to come close to what Baldur’s Gate has achieved is Elden Ring, which enjoyed a larger launch than Larian’s gem, maintaining traction until 24 days after its launch, at which point Baldur’s Gate 3 took over.

Still, FromSoftware has nothing to frown about given the game survived over 400,000 average daily players for the entirety of its first 26 days.

Related: Baldur’s Gate 3 surpasses Apex’s peak player count as it continues to smash records

With these stats to back it up, right now it appears Baldur’s Gate 3 would be the frontrunner for Game of the Year. That said, even if it fails to capture the title, it will still be honored as such by its many extremely active players.

Author
Image of Ryan Galloway
Ryan Galloway
Ryan is a Senior Staff Writer for Dot Esports who has been working at GAMURS since 2020. He covers a wide variety of titles from across the gaming space, with a focus on Pokémon. He boasts a degree in Journalism from Murdoch University. Email: ryan@dotesports.com