Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals ignited the gaming world with incredibly successful launch weekends. Discover the details of these remarkable achievements!
A Half-Million Strong Player Base
A Weekend of Gaming Milestones
The weekend saw the triumphant launches of two highly anticipated games, each attracting an impressive 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 release on December 7th.
Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch was particularly noteworthy, reaching a peak of 578,569 concurrent players on Steam alone. This is a significant achievement, especially considering its paid Early Access status. Twitch viewership for the game exceeded 1 million on launch day. The game's immense popularity even temporarily overwhelmed SteamDB, the database site tracking Steam statistics, resulting in a humorous public acknowledgment from SteamDB.
Prior to launch, Path of Exile 2 had already surpassed 1 million pre-orders, a number that rapidly climbed in the hours leading up to the servers going live. The unexpected influx of players purchasing Early Access passes prompted a last-minute database upgrade by the development team to handle the surge in traffic. Despite these server expansions, some players experienced disconnections and login issues, facing lengthy queues to access the game – a clear indication of the game's highly anticipated release.
Read Game8's review of Path of Exile 2's Early Access version!
