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. 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 attracting over 500,000 players on their launch days. Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play team-based PVP arena shooter, debuted on December 6th, followed by Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch 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, particularly given the paid Early Access model. Twitch viewership for the game surpassed 1 million on launch day. The game's popularity was so immense that it reportedly temporarily overwhelmed the SteamDB database, a humorous incident acknowledged by SteamDB itself.

Even prior to launch, Path of Exile 2 had already exceeded 1 million pre-orders, a number that rapidly climbed in the hours leading up to release. This unexpected surge of players purchasing Early Access prompted a last-minute database upgrade by the development team to handle the influx. Despite these efforts, 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 build!