Rolling the dice and moving up the PC launch of Baldur’s Gate 3 to avoid Bethesda’s upcoming blockbuster Starfield has the potential to be one of the smartest publishing decisions made this decade. Having now eclipsed over 800,000 concurrent players on Steam (moving into the platform’s all-time top 10 concurrent player rankings) since launching to critical acclaim last week, BG3 is now topping PlayStation 5 sales charts ahead of its release in just under a month’s time as well.
Critics aren’t the only ones stunned by this massive achievement – the success of the game has far succeeded what developer Larian Studios was expecting when founder and CEO Swen Vincke told their IT team to expect somewhere around 100k players max at launch. In a world where some publishers have begun shifting their franchises farther away from their turn-based origins, Larian has proven that there is still plenty of interest in that style of play.
In addition to the 11 races and 12 classes that players can choose from in the character creator, Baldur’s Gate 3 also sports a stunning 17,000 different ending variations (good luck out there, completionists), allowing for every playthrough to feel fresh and different. Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently available on PC, releasing on PlayStation 5 on September 6th, and releasing on Xbox Series consoles later this year/early next.
Image from: Larian Studios
