Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals ignited the gaming world with incredibly successful launch weekends, each attracting a massive player base. Let's delve into the details of these remarkable achievements.
A Half-Million Strong Debut
A Weekend of Gaming Triumphs
The weekend of December 6th and 7th saw the simultaneous launch of two highly anticipated titles: the team-based PVP shooter Marvel Rivals, and the action RPG Path of Exile 2 (in Early Access). Both games impressively welcomed 500,000 players each on their respective launch days.
Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch on Steam alone peaked at a staggering 578,569 concurrent players. This is a phenomenal achievement, especially considering the paid Early Access model. The game's popularity also translated to Twitch, where the Path of Exile 2 category boasted over 1 million viewers on launch day. The sheer volume of players even temporarily overwhelmed SteamDB, the database tracking Steam statistics, leading to a humorous incident where SteamDB playfully blamed the game for the outage.
Even before its release, Path of Exile 2 had already surpassed 1 million pre-orders, a number that rapidly escalated in the hours leading up to launch. This unprecedented surge in Early Access purchases necessitated a last-minute database upgrade by the development team to handle the influx of players. Despite this upgrade, some players experienced login issues and disconnections, highlighting the immense anticipation surrounding the game's release.
Read Game8's review of Path of Exile 2's Early Access version!
