S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has launched to great numbers on Steam.
SteamDB tallies that player numbers peaked at 113,587 concurrent players, six hours after the game launched. As of this writing, it has 54,313 players, a decent metric since it’s no longer peak player times in the US. It suggests that half of all those players have started playing at the opposite side of the world.
It’s a remarkable achievement since GSC Game World and Microsoft had to explain that this would not be an approachable title. Instead of a community building live service title like Minecraft or Helldivers 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a survival title, that originated from when games were made difficult the way FromSoftware makes games difficult.
To be clear, while Dark Souls and Elden Ring players will have skills they can carry over, and there’s already a captive audience for survival games, few survival games were put on as high a pedestal as this title was. It wasn’t entirely what they wanted, but being the video game that symbolizes a country’s quest for self-determination is entirely unique for it, and in this particular form of mass media.
It’s also noteworthy since this metric does not account for players who bought it on Xbox, or are playing it through Game Pass. It’s too early to tell if this game has already broken even, but this is a sign that if it isn’t there yet, GSC Game World is likely to do it in time.
To help put this in context, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero hit 90,000 players, and Marvel Rivals hit over 50,000 concurrent players, both in Early Access. The ceiling for Steam concurrent players was set impossibly high this year, but when you consider that the very successful Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hit 306,133 concurrent players on Steam, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl did quite decently for itself.
GSC Game World has committed to listening to feedback as they bring fixes and updates in both the short-term and long-term future. If you haven’t picked up the game yet, it is entirely possible that it will be a completely different title a few weeks or months down the line.
We understand, of course, that most gamers have high standards when it comes to games that aren’t quite 100 % at launch. We hope that in this case, those gamers who are interested would understand that this once, they just might be that special exception.
