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 milestones achieved.

A Massive Player Base

A Weekend of Record-Breaking Launches

The weekend saw the triumphant arrival of two highly anticipated titles: Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play team-based PVP arena shooter, launched on December 6th; and Path of Exile 2, an action RPG, entered Early Access on December 7th. Both games attracted a staggering 500,000 players each on their respective launch days.

Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch on Steam alone peaked at 578,569 concurrent players—a remarkable achievement for a paid Early Access title. Twitch viewership for the game exceeded 1 million on launch day. The game's immense popularity even temporarily overwhelmed SteamDB, the database tracking Steam statistics, leading to a humorous public acknowledgment from SteamDB itself.

Prior to launch, Path of Exile 2 had already surpassed 1 million pre-orders, a number that continued to climb rapidly in the hours leading up to release. This unprecedented surge of players purchasing Early Access passes necessitated a last-minute database upgrade by the development team to handle the influx of traffic. Despite this expansion, some players experienced disconnections and login issues, highlighting the game's eagerly anticipated status and the resulting high demand.

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