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 impressive milestones achieved by these two titles!

A Massive Player Base

A Phenomenal Launch Weekend

The weekend saw the triumphant debuts of two highly anticipated games, each attracting a staggering 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 an astounding 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 tracking Steam statistics, prompting a humorous acknowledgment from SteamDB itself.

Prior to launch, Path of Exile 2 had already surpassed 1 million pre-orders, a figure that rapidly escalated in the hours leading up to the servers going live. The unexpected influx of players purchasing Early Access prompted a last-minute database upgrade by the development team to handle the massive surge in traffic. Despite this expansion, players experienced some server issues, including disconnections and login queues, a testament to the game's highly anticipated release.

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