Baldur's Gate 3 is taking over lives, accounting for over 25% of Steam's total daily playtime in the US

Baldur's Gate 3 accounted for nearly a third of total playtime on Steam in the US this past Sunday.

The mind-blowing statistic was provided by Circana, via executive director Mat Piscatella in the tweet just below. Piscatella revealed that this past Sunday, August 6, Baldur's Gate 3 accounted for 27.5% of total playtime on Steam throughout the US, and the closest another game came to that was CS:GO at just 5%.

From Circana's Player Engagement Tracker - This past Sunday (6 Aug), Baldur's Gate III play accounted for nearly 28% of total player time spent on Steam, leading all other titles by far, including CS:GO at 5%. Bonkers numbers. pic.twitter.com/lY83gu0zTGAugust 10, 2023

If you're a little confused as to how Baldur's Gate 3 could amass such playtime, you're not the only one. CS: GO actually amassed a peak player count 400,000 higher than BG3 on Sunday, but Piscatella notes that Circana's player tracking on Steam only counts the US. That means that for games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2, with significant European audiences, the shares are lower than you might expect.

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Player Engagement Tracker is US only, and here we're looking only at % of time played (which would include idling). DAU and time spent metrics don't always correlate.August 10, 2023

It's also worth noting that Daily Active Users doesn't correlate to playtime though, because it's easy to play a quick few games of a shooter like CS:GO and head off, while Baldur's Gate 3 players are likely ploughing dozens of hours into Larian's sequel.

It's admittedly an imperfect way of tracking playtime, but it's still worth taking as a significant milestone for just how popular Baldur's Gate 3 is right now. The sequel has gone above and beyond what developer Larian even expected, and the game's own director even said the success "was not in the books at all."

You'll want to read our Baldur's Gate 3 Warlock guide if you're after the best choices and build decisions for the class.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.