How much Persona 5 is too much Persona 5? That's a question that Atlus seems no closer to answering, as Persona 5: The Phantom X is finally available worldwide, and it's already hit the highest concurrent player peak on Steam out of all the P5 releases on there.
Since the original Persona 5, we've also had its Royal re-release, the Dancing in Starlight rhythm game spinoff, its Strikers action RPG, Tactica strategy RPG, and now, the free-to-play Phantom X is available in way more territories than before.
Looking at its concurrent player count records (thanks, SteamDB), the Black Wings Game Studio-developed spinoff of Atlus' favorite child managed to hit a peak of 41,622 within 12 hours of its launch. Given that we're currently midday on a weekday, I suspect that could well rise further in the days to come.
It's worth noting that not all of those aforementioned P5 games are actually available on Steam, but it's still outdone the ones on there, including the best version of the main game, Persona 5 Royal, which launched to 35,474 concurrent players back in 2022.
Admittedly, it did have a bit of a disadvantage in the sense that its PC release came three years after its initial launch on consoles (two years outside of Japan), but even so, it's still being beaten by a free-to-play take that's infused with gacha elements. That said, the fact that The Phantom X is free is a gigantic factor hanging over this whole player count thing.
As for Persona 5 Tactica, well, that one didn't have a particularly strong start on Steam. With a peak of 4,344 concurrent players, it was never going to be incredible competition, but even so. Persona 5 Strikers' peak wasn't much stronger at 8,730.
For what it's worth, The Phantom X is close to reaching the highest concurrent player count of any Persona game on Steam, too – it's currently only beaten by Persona 3 Reload, which is barely hanging on with its launch peak of 45,002. There's definitely still room for the new spinoff to overtake it – we'll just have to watch this space.
Looking for more? Be sure to check out our roundup of the best JRPGs.
