Who would have thought that a predominately single-player, non-live-service RPG would hit over 100,000 concurrent players two and a half years after it launched? Baldur’s Gate 3 is just built different, and the genre-defining fantasy game has done just that. According to SteamDB, the game hit 111,544 concurrent Steam players on Sunday, January 18, and Larian CEO Swen Vincke says that both it and Divinity Original Sin 2 have seen a spike in sales since the announcement of Divinity at The Game Awards.
While these numbers pale in comparison to how popular Baldur’s Gate 3 was at launch, with nearly a million players jumping in on Steam alone, it’s impressive that the game is still so popular, with no sale or new DLC to entice us back. The stats are also in the wake of Larian’s controversial use of generative AI in the development process, something it has since U-turned on.
However, Larian CEO Swen Vincke shed some light on the RPG’s enduring popularity. “Sales for both [Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity Original Sin 2] have been incredible since the announcement of Divinity,” he writes on X. “D:OS 2 really surprised us by having its best month since release in 2017. Wish I’d removed the squirrel in time.”
The squirrel in question is Sir Lora, a companion in the game. Personally, I find the ‘lil guy endearing, despite his proclivity for ruining all my combat plans by setting himself alight and running into an oil slick or suchlike. The rest of the community isn’t quite so forgiving, however and clearly neither is Vincke.
Squirrels aside, the sales are impressive for Larian. While the Divinity trailer was certainly a memorable moment of The Game Awards, we barely know a thing about the game yet. Vincke has revealed it will be turn-based and probably go through early access like BG3, but is it a sequel? A prequel? A soft reboot of the Divinity series? Larian is keeping its cards close to its chest.
Perhaps these questions are why people are flooding back to Larian’s previous games. Divinity: Original Sin 2 will give you a good idea of the world the new game will take place in, while Baldur’s Gate 3 reminds us of Larian’s capabilities. Whatever the case, Larian has plenty of endlessly replayable RPGs to keep us happy until the Divinity release date finally rolls around.
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