PoE2 and Marvel Rivals Spark Gaming Frenzy

Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals ignited the gaming world with incredibly successful launch weekends. Discover the remarkable achievements below!

A Half-Million Strong Player Base

A Weekend of Record-Breaking Launches

The weekend saw two major game releases achieve phenomenal success, each boasting over 500,000 players on their launch day. Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play team-based PVP arena shooter, launched 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 nothing short of spectacular, peaking at 578,569 concurrent players on Steam alone. This impressive number is particularly noteworthy given the game's paid Early Access status. Twitch viewership for the game exceeded 1 million on launch day. The game's popularity even temporarily overwhelmed SteamDB, the database tracking Steam statistics, prompting a humorous acknowledgement from the SteamDB team.

Before its release, Path of Exile 2 had already surpassed 1 million pre-orders, a number that continued to climb rapidly in the hours leading up to launch. The unexpected influx of players purchasing Early Access passes forced a last-minute database upgrade to handle the immense traffic. Despite this expansion, 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!