Games almost never pull this off, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 managed a JRPG miracle: hitting an even higher Steam player peak weeks after launch

Despite a strong showing at the Microsoft's Xbox Showcase at Summer Game Fest 2024, and a stacked cast featuring the likes of Final Fantasy 16's Ben Starr, Baldur's Gate 3's Jennifer English, and Gollum (Andy Serkis), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a game that seemingly snuck up on a lot of people. But that doesn't seem to matter as its high review scores (4.5/5 in our own Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review) and an extremely strong word-of-mouth are keeping it at the forefront of everyone's minds, even when it was going head-to-head with The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion remake.

Clair Obscur is already a big success, having sold over 2 million copies despite launching on Xbox Game Pass on day one. But the strong word of mouth has clearly paid off as the game has performed a feat that's possibly even more impressive. Taking a look at the game's SteamDB chart reveals that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is actually one of those rare games to hit its all-time peak after launch, with the game hitting 145,063 players on Steam on Sunday, May 4. The previous peak was the previous Sunday (April 27), where the game hit 121,422 players.

Plus, this doesn't even take into consideration that a lot of people will be playing the game on PC for free through the Xbox Game Pass subscription, so the actual number of PC players is bound to be way higher for this debut title. While it's unlikely we'll see the peak player count grow in the coming weeks, it's very likely that the game will continue to have a strong presence throughout this year, there's a ton of people who likely have it as the next thing on their list when they finish up Oblivion or Skin Deep.