Baldur's Gate 3 director says the game's massive success "was not in the books at all"

Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke didn't anticipate Baldur's Gate 3 to be even a fraction as successful as it has proven to be.

In a conversation with PC Gamer, Vincke revealed that he was initially worried the game's success had peaked during Early Access.

"We've seen that in the past, other games were very successful in early access and then on the day of release they didn't sell much more because they saturated already," he said. "That was my biggest fear, that that had happened."

Of course, we all know that very much did not happen. By now, you've probably read about just how many players are diving into Baldur's Gate 3 after its long stay in Early Access. After its Steam concurrent player count broke 800,000 over the weekend, it entered Steam's top-10 most played games ever, and it's also the platform's second-biggest launch of 2023 and one of the biggest RPG launches ever, even surpassing juggernauts like Skyrim and Fallout 4.

"This was not in the books at all," Vincke said. "This was way, way beyond what we expected. There's also no precedent for it, for our type of game to have that many people playing concurrently ... Everybody here is very happy. You see a lot of smiling faces. At the same time, a lot of focus. We have reports coming in from people having issues, so we're focused on fixing those issues, that's very much on everyone's minds."

The main takeaway here is that CRPGs are getting more and more popular and will likely continue in that direction thanks to Baldur's Gate 3. Also, and never take betting advice from Vincke.

If you're among the many, many people playing Larian's latest, check out our Baldur's Gate 3 tips to ensure you're getting the most from your time.