Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals ignited the gaming world with remarkably successful launch weekends. Let's delve into the impressive numbers.

A Half-Million Strong Player Base

A Weekend of Record-Breaking Launches

This past weekend witnessed two phenomenal game launches, each boasting an incredible 500,000 players on their respective launch days. The free-to-play, team-based PVP arena shooter, Marvel Rivals, debuted on December 6th, followed by the action RPG Path of Exile 2's Early Access release on December 7th.

Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch was nothing short of spectacular, reaching a peak of 578,569 concurrent players on Steam alone. This is a truly impressive achievement, especially considering the paid Early Access model. Twitch viewership for the game also soared, exceeding 1 million viewers on launch day. The game's popularity even temporarily overwhelmed SteamDB, the database tracking Steam statistics, resulting in a humorous acknowledgement from SteamDB itself.

Even before its release, Path of Exile 2 surpassed 1 million pre-orders, a number that continued to climb rapidly in the hours leading up to launch. This unprecedented surge of players purchasing Early Access led the development team to implement a last-minute database upgrade to handle the influx of traffic. Despite these efforts, some players experienced disconnections and login issues, highlighting the immense anticipation surrounding the game's release.

Read Game8's review of Path of Exile 2's Early Access version!