Baldur's Gate 3's Steam Surge Post-Patch 8: Larian Sets Sights on Next Big Project

Since the launch of the highly anticipated Patch 8, *Baldur’s Gate 3* has experienced a notable increase in Steam player numbers. This surge positions Larian Studios in an ideal place to fully commit to developing its next ambitious title.

The transformative Patch 8 dropped last week and introduced 12 new subclasses to *Baldur’s Gate 3*. Its release brought a wave of players eager to explore the expanded character options and the newly added photo mode.

On Steam, *Baldur’s Gate 3* reached a peak concurrent player count of 169,267 over the weekend—an impressive milestone for a single-player RPG entering its second year. While PlayStation and Xbox player data remains private, the PC success alone highlights the game's ongoing popularity.

Looking back on Patch 8, Larian founder Swen Vincke expressed confidence that *Baldur’s Gate 3* will “continue to do well for quite some time.” He attributed this not only to the patch’s success but also to the growing modding community.

“This gives us room to focus on making our next big thing as good as we can,” Vincke explained. “We’ve got big shoes to fill.”

He added: “Feeling good today about where we are with BG3. Patch 8 got a lot of people playing again. It took a lot of development effort, but I'm happy we did it. With mod support thriving, I think the game will now continue to do well for quite some time. It gives us room to focus on making our next big thing as good as we can—and that focus is more than welcome. We've got big shoes to fill.”

Patch 8 marks the final major update for *Baldur’s Gate 3*, closing a chapter filled with critical praise and commercial triumph since its 2023 launch. The game has maintained strong sales through 2024 and into 2025.

Larian surprised fans by announcing plans to move on from *Baldur’s Gate 3* and Dungeons & Dragons entirely, focusing instead on a brand-new IP. The studio teased hints about the upcoming project before implementing a media blackout to maintain creative focus.

However, Hasbro—the owner of D&D—has hinted at future plans for the franchise. During a conversation at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, Hasbro’s SVP of digital games, revealed that with Larian moving forward, there are several parties interested in continuing the *Baldur’s Gate* legacy.

“We're kind of working out our plans for the future and what we're going to be doing with that,” Ayoub said. “And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that.”

While no concrete details were given on whether this includes a full sequel or another type of collaboration like the previous Magic: The Gathering crossover, Ayoub did express a desire to eventually develop *Baldur’s Gate 4*.

“It's somewhat of an unenviable position,” he admitted. “We’re not in a rush. We're going to take a very measured approach. We've got a lot of plans, a lot of different ways to go about it. We're starting to think about, okay, yeah, we're ready to start dipping toes a little bit and talking about a few things. And I think, in really short order, like I said, again, not to over-tease that point—we're going to have some other things to talk about around that.”