Baldur’s Gate 3 Continues to Break Records with Increased Player Base in 2024

Baldur’s Gate 3 has defied typical gaming trends by attracting more players in 2024 than during its launch year. The game’s publishing director, Michael Douse, recently shared some remarkable statistics on X that showcase the RPG’s enduring appeal.

The numbers tell an impressive story: daily active users have jumped by 20% compared to 2023, while peak concurrent players have increased by 3%. Perhaps most surprisingly, Steam Deck users have surged by an astounding 61%, indicating the game’s growing popularity among portable gaming enthusiasts.

What makes these statistics particularly noteworthy is that Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t designed as a live-service game that typically sees such sustained growth with regular content updates. Instead, it’s a single-player RPG that players usually complete in about 100 hours. Yet, something special keeps drawing people back to this fantasy world.

The continued success of the game seems largely due to the introduction of mod support in September 2024. This feature enables players to create and share their own custom content, which has revitalized the game, leading to 50 million mod downloads by the end of October. The modding tools are particularly user-friendly, working through mod.io to ensure compatibility and easy distribution. Even console players can now join in the fun, thanks to an in-game mod manager that makes customizing their experience straightforward.

Beyond just mod support, the game’s Honour Mode (added in late 2023) encouraged hardcore players to return for more challenging playthroughs. The developers have also continued to polish the experience, adding new content like expanded epilogues and alternative endings for players who choose a more villainous path.

Talks about sales, since its launch in August 2023, Baldur’s Gate 3 has sold over 15 million copies, cementing its place as one of the most successful CRPGs ever made. On Steam, it maintained a strong presence with over 200,000 concurrent players for several months following an initial peak of 875,000 at launch, up until March as per SteamDB.

In a lighthearted note, Douse shared that the game even found its way to Vatican City, with another copy being sold there recently. This follows his previous tweet about two earlier sales in the holy city, adding a touch of humor to the statistics.

These impressive statistics suggest that Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t just a successful game – it’s becoming a landmark title that continues to set new standards for what players can expect from modern RPGs.