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 weekend launches. Discover the details of these remarkable achievements!

A Massive Player Base

A Weekend of Record-Breaking Launches

The weekend saw the triumphant debuts 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, 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 on Steam alone peaked at a staggering 578,569 concurrent players. This is a remarkable achievement, especially 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 SteamDB, the database site tracking Steam statistics, leading to a humorous acknowledgement from SteamDB itself.

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 release. The unexpected influx of players purchasing Early Access prompted a last-minute database upgrade by the development team to handle the surge in traffic. Despite this expansion, players still experienced disconnections, login issues, and lengthy queues, a testament to the game's highly anticipated arrival.

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