Crimson Desert's success isn't slowing down anytime soon. Once again, it recently enjoyed an extremely popular weekend on Steam, making it easily one of the most popular games on the store.
In the last 24 hours, Crimson Desert reached a peak of 236,253 concurrent players on Steam alone, not too far from its all-time peak of 276,261 eight days ago. It shows that Crimson Desert might have some real staying power and be one of those single-player games that consistently gives live services a run for their money.
The Crimson Desert hype doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon
Even with Easter weekend off, Crimson Desert still has an impressive 169,822 concurrent players. This makes it the sixth most played game on Steam right now, ahead of Arc Raiders, Stardew Valley, GTA 5, and many others.
That's not bad for a game that divides players and critics alike. Initially launching to “mixed” Steam reviews and “generally favorable” reviews on Metacritic, Crimson Desert has sparked some strong reactions, as some have seen the amount of content as great value for money, and praise the vast open world, while others find it directionless and frustrating to play.
If it sticks to enough of the interest generated by the launch, we could see it join the ranks of Baldur's Gate 3 and GTA 5; Single-player games that often pull live service figures long after release. It might be handily beating both right now, but it's been less than a month since its launch, so we'll have to wait and see where it stacks up.
One thing we already know is that this interest has translated into sales—more than four million sales, to be exact. It's not all bad for a new IP. While there were certainly issues behind the scenes during development, it looks like Crimson Desert has actually paid off in the end.
- issued
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March 19, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood, drug references, intense violence, strong language
- developer(s)
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The Pearl Abyss
- Publisher(s)
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The Pearl Abyss
