PoE2, Marvel Rivals Ignite Gaming Scene

Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals, a new action RPG and arena shooter respectively, enjoyed incredibly successful launch weekends. Let's delve into the details of these remarkable achievements.

A Massive 500,000+ Player Base

A Weekend of Record-Breaking Launches

The weekend of December 6th and 7th saw the simultaneous release of two highly anticipated titles, each attracting over 500,000 players on their launch day. 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 concurrent player count of 578,569. This is a significant achievement, particularly considering the paid Early Access model. Twitch viewership for the game exceeded 1 million on launch day. The game's immense popularity even temporarily overwhelmed the SteamDB database, prompting a humorous acknowledgment from SteamDB itself.

Even before its release, Path of Exile 2 had already surpassed 1 million pre-orders, a number that rapidly increased in the hours leading up to launch. The unexpected influx of players purchasing Early Access prompted a last-minute database upgrade by the development team to handle the massive traffic. Despite this expansion, players still experienced some server disconnections and login issues, with lengthy queues becoming commonplace. This highlights the incredible anticipation surrounding the game's release.

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