Over a year has passed since Baldur’s Gate 3 hit the scene in August 2023, and it’s still pulling in big numbers, even managing to sell a copy to someone with connections to the Vatican.
Recently, Michael Douse from Larian shared some fresh stats about Baldur’s Gate 3 online. He mentioned that the game’s average daily peak players have climbed 3% this year, likely because mods were added earlier. These mods are a huge hit, with players downloading over 50 million of them! Meanwhile, the number of daily active users has jumped by more than 20% compared to last year, and folks playing on Steam Deck have increased by 61% over the same period. Douse didn’t say if these figures are just for Steam or if they include Xbox and PlayStation too.
These figures highlight just how loved Baldur’s Gate 3 is. But the real eyebrow-raiser is that Larian sold one more copy at The Holy See, right in the Vatican. “Thank you Mr. Pope and enjoy the game,” Douse remarked.
Earlier in November, Douse mentioned they had sold two copies of the game in Vatican City and that it was on another wishlist. Maybe that person finally decided to buy it. According to the CIA, about 1,000 folks live in Vatican City as of 2022, so it’s probably just an ordinary person who made the purchase, but wouldn’t it be funny if it was the Pope?
Pope Francis has met with well-known YouTubers, and someone even gave him a copy of Undertale. He isn’t the first leader to get a game as a gift. Back in 2011, Poland’s Donald Tusk handed Barack Obama a copy of The Witcher 2.
With Baldur’s Gate 3 being such a hit, some thought Larian might jump straight into making Baldur’s Gate 4. But they’re cooking up something different. In May, Swen Vincke, the head of Larian, said, “We’re working on it. If we’re brutally honest, we’re trying to figure out what the hell it is. We have ideas. We have lots of little fragments.”
Fans, we sometimes wonder what these game creators will think up next.
Vincke also dreams of crafting a “very big RPG” that would make Larian’s past games look small. “It’s an inspirational goal. That’s it. I cannot say more, because it needs to stay in that dream-reality,” he shared.
While Larian isn’t making Baldur’s Gate 4, Hasbro is eager to keep the series going with different teams. “We’re going to take our time and find the right partner, the right approach, and the right product,” Hasbro has said about what’s next for Baldur’s Gate.
