Dragon Age Veilguard made more people start playing BG3 on Steam again

Dragon Age The Veilguard is here after 10 years of waiting, and it’s made more people start playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Steam again

Larian Studios

Dragon Age The Veilguard is here after 10 years of waiting, and it’s made more people start playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Steam again. Granted, Larian discounting BG3 by 20 percent probably helped as well, but seeing as BG3 only exists thanks to Dragon Age anyway, it’s an interesting relationship parallel.

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Prior to Veilguard’s launch, BG3 had slipped pretty far down in Steam’s top sellers list, but it’s popped back up to take the number six spot, behind Throne and Liberty, Farming Simulator 25, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Veilguard – which was Steam’s top seller right before it launched on Oct. 31, 2024 – dropped down to the eighth spot, behind the excellent Age of Wonders 4, which is also on sale.

Veilguard’s sales dropping is normal for a single-player game, and what numbers those sales rankings actually translate to for either game is anyone’s guess, since neither Valve nor publishers share hard data like that on Steam. However, a look at SteamDB’s charts shows a small, but noticeable, uptick in BG3’s concurrent players.

Following a moderate peak with BG3 Patch 7 launched in September 2024, the total number of people playing on Steam gradually dropped – from 137,000 on patch launch day to 120,000 a month later before settling around 102,000 as its peak at the end of October 2024. On Veilguard’s launch day, that number dropped to 61,000 before rising again to 103,000 a few days later.

Now, as Veilguard’s peak concurrent player count hovers around the 60,000 mark, BG3’s is on the rise again. It hit its highest point – 107,000 – since early October 2024, and, as of midday on a Monday, nearly 80,000 people are playing. 37,000 are playing Veilguard.

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Perhaps it’s not too surprising. Veilguard is the least like the Dragon Age games that inspired Larian, with fewer branching choices and a few too many polished edges. Everybody’s good, nobody stays annoyed for long, experimentation is limited, and your influence over how the story plays out feels rather restrained. If you’re after a narrative-heavy game where your choices matter and surprises wait almost literally around every corner, BG3 is the best available option – at least, until Larian puts Divinity Original Sin 2 on current-gen consoles, whenever that may be.