Video Games

Astarion edges Gale out of the most popular BG3 Origin character spot

But folks like kissing Shadowheart more

Josh Broadwell

Larian Studios/GLHF

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one year old, and Larian released a new round of BG3 player stats showing just what all you RPG fans have been up to. One of the interesting pieces of data is that Astarion finally overtook Gale as the most popular Origin character.

The race was close in the first round of data Larian released in December 2023, with 446,000 Gale runs and 424,000 Astarion runs, with a big drop for third place – Karlach at 326,000. Lae’zel trailed behind at the end with 228,000. Poor Lae’zel.

Now Astarion reigns supreme, with 1.21 million people having played him as an Origin character and 1.20 million who opted to play as Gale. Shadowheart pushed past Karlach to claim the third spot with 0.86 million – that’s 860,000, which is also more than half a million new Shadowheart Origin runs since December 2023.

Astarion might be more popular, but Shadowheart wins the most kissed award. Larian said there have been more than 75 million companion kisses, and 27 million of those are with Shadowheart. Astarion’s been kissed 15 million times, and despite how good the Minthara romance is, folks have locked lips with the formidable Drow less than 200,000 times.

The general consensus on Reddit and Larian’s forums is that Origin runs are a bit less fun than having these characters as companions, since you miss out on their unique interactions. That, plus Larian’s original advice to not start with a custom, might explain why 93 percent of BG3 players opted for a custom character instead.

Only 15 percent of that number played the Dark Urge, though. Any BG3 playthrough is a big ask, since the game is so massive, but there’s a lot of unique storytelling you only get as the Dark Urge, including a stirring redemption tale. Well, unless you murder everyone, like GLHF’s director, Kirk McKeand, did in our Baldur’s Gate 3 review. 

Surprisingly, for all the fuss online about dirty bear dancing and squid play, most of you behaved yourselves with Halsin and the Emperor. Of the 658,000 people who became physically intimate with Halsin, only 30 percent said the bear fur stays on. Likewise, only 37 percent of the 1.1 million people who spent the night with the Emperor experimented with tentacles instead of playing it safe with the dream guardian.

One of the more interesting pieces of information Larian shared concerns an ending few players have seen. If you play as Origin Lae’zel, remain loyal to Vlaakith, and fail to ascend at the end of the game, you can choose to have Lae’zel commit suicide. Only 34 people have seen this ending, and, well, it’s not really hard to imagine why.

On a lighter note, only 17 percent of people have seen Karlach’s dinner date scene. Granted, a lot of romance flags and a big chunk of Act 3 dialogue were bugged out of existence for a few weeks after launch, so maybe that’s not so surprising.

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 is incoming sometime in fall 2024, bringing BG3 mod support and some new evil cinematics, but despite once having a playable portion of Baldur's Gate 4, Larian is leaving Faerun and moving on to something big and fresh instead.

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Josh Broadwell
JOSH BROADWELL

Josh is a freelance writer and reporter who specializes in guides, reviews, and whatever else he can convince someone to commission. You may have seen him on NPR, IGN, Polygon, or Rolling Stone shouting about RPGs. When he isn’t working, you’ll likely find him outside with his Belgian Malinois and Australian Shepherd or leveling yet another job in FFXIV.

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