PoE2 and Marvel Rivals Sets Gaming World Ablaze with Successful Weekend Launch

The gaming community was set ablaze over the weekend as both Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals achieved remarkable success upon their launches. Dive into the details of these monumental achievements!

Opening to a 500k Strong Audience

The weekend was nothing short of spectacular, with two highly anticipated games drawing in massive crowds. Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play team-based PVP shooter arena, kicked off on December 6th, closely followed by the action RPG Path of Exile 2 entering Early Access on December 7th. Both titles attracted an impressive 500,000 players each on their launch days.

Path of Exile 2, despite being available only through paid Early Access, saw a peak of 578,569 players on Steam. This is a testament to the game's strong appeal and the anticipation surrounding its release. On Twitch, the game garnered over 1 million viewers on its launch day, showcasing its widespread interest. The surge in popularity was so intense that it temporarily overwhelmed the database site SteamDB, leading to a humorous post from SteamDB blaming Path of Exile 2 for the site's downtime.

Even before its official release, Path of Exile 2 had already sold over 1 million copies, with sales numbers continuing to climb rapidly just hours before the servers went live. The overwhelming demand prompted the development team to implement a last-minute database upgrade to handle the influx of new players. Despite these efforts, some players experienced disconnections and login issues, resulting in long queues as eager fans waited to dive into the game. This only underscores the high level of anticipation and excitement surrounding Path of Exile 2.

For an in-depth look at Path of Exile 2's Early Access build, be sure to check out Game8's review!