Path of Exile 2 has nearly doubled the first game's Steam player record and people can't even play yet – and apparently SteamDB crashed when everyone went to check

Path of Exile 2's early access launch is upon us, and while the servers are still struggling to come online, the game's already breaking its predecessor's player count records.

Path of Exile 2 immediately skyrocketed to 439,472 concurrent players on Steam, even without the servers being open for business. That doesn't even count the players hopping in on PlayStation and Xbox, but it's nearly double the original game's all-time Steam record. If that's how many people were firing up the game just to stare at a login screen, I think it's fair to say we've got a bonafide hit on our hands.

You can check the stats for yourself over on SteamDB - now, anyway, since the third-party tracking site apparently crashed because of everybody trying to find out how the game was doing.

As I write this, developer Grinding Gear Games is still working to get Path of Exile 2 online, saying that the launch is "relatively imminent" after "a last minute crash." You can follow the developer's social media for fast updates on the state of the game.

If you're looking for a way to spend the time while waiting for the servers come up, you can check out our Path of Exile 2 review. While it's too early to give the game a score, Alessandro reckons it's "a stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure."

Check out our guide to the best Path of Exile 2 classes for a head start when you can finally get into the action-RPG.