PoE2 and Marvel Rivals Sets Gaming World Ablaze with Successful Weekend Launch

Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals ignited the gaming world with incredibly successful launch weekends. Let's delve into the impressive numbers.

A Massive 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 days. Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play team-based PVP arena shooter, debuted on December 6th. Path of Exile 2, an action RPG, followed in Early Access on December 7th.

Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch on Steam alone peaked at an astounding 578,569 concurrent players. This is a remarkable achievement, especially considering its 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 acknowledgment from the SteamDB team.

Prior to launch, Path of Exile 2 had already surpassed 1 million pre-orders, a number that rapidly climbed in the hours before launch. This unexpected surge in Early Access purchases necessitated a last-minute database upgrade by the development team to handle the influx of players. Despite server expansions, 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!