Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals ignited the gaming world with remarkably successful weekend launches. Discover the details of these impressive achievements!
A Massive Player Base
A Weekend of Record-Breaking Launches
The weekend witnessed two triumphant game releases, each attracting an astounding 500,000 players on their respective launch days. Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play team-based PVP arena shooter, debuted on December 6th, followed by Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch on December 7th.
Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch on Steam alone saw a peak of 578,569 concurrent players – a remarkable achievement for a paid Early Access title. Twitch viewership for the game exceeded 1 million on launch day. The game's immense popularity even temporarily overwhelmed SteamDB, the database tracking Steam statistics, leading to a humorous public acknowledgment from SteamDB itself.
Prior to release, Path of Exile 2 had already surpassed 1 million pre-orders, a number that rapidly climbed in the hours leading up to launch. The unexpected influx of players purchasing Early Access prompted the development team to implement a last-minute database upgrade to handle the surge in traffic. Despite this expansion, players experienced some initial server issues, including disconnections and login queues, highlighting the game's highly anticipated nature.
Read Game8's review of Path of Exile 2's Early Access version!
