Baldur’s Gate 3 is keeping players for longer than Elden Ring after release
Larian Studios / FromSoftwareBaldur’s Gate 3 is undoubtedly one of the best games released in 2023 and is now beating other single-player titles like Elden Ring in terms of player retention.
Larian Studios’ latest installment to their RPG franchise has been massive. Our Baldur’s Gate 3 review alone was 125 hours into the making, which roughly gives you an idea of how big the game actually is. You can easily say the BG3 stands tall among the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and The Witcher 3, to name a few.
Apart from following the campaign, the game has a lot more to offer. Its non-linear story includes exploration, inventory management, looting, and so much more to keep you engaged. And players from the Baldur’s Gate 3 community are on the same page as well.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is outpacing games like Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and more
The graph in the original Reddit post shows a playerbase retention comparison between Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Hogwarts Legacy, since the day of their release.
There’s no doubt how big Elden Ring is, both in terms of gameplay length and lore. Baldur’s Gate 3 stands on an equal level, if not more. Since the game is set in the universe of DnD, it naturally attracts all the fans from that franchise.
Being a role-playing game, some other factors come into play like looting crates and treasures and managing items, rather than just simply following the story blindly. These contribute to a ton of retention time, as players have to engage more for an ideal experience. And not to forget, the turn-based mechanic takes it a level further.
Some players have spent more than 300 hours on the game, out of which, the story claims a very small part. One user said, “In my 300 hours so far, I reckon; 100 hours looting, 100 hours inventory management, 50 hours story, and the remainder probably procrastinating, passing out from no sleep, AFK, etc 😂 This game is a different breed.”
Another compared it to FromSoftware’s souls-like and commented, “Crazy it’s outpacing Elden Ring though that’s also a huge game.”
Considering the plethora of content Baldur’s Gate 3 offers, the replayability is off the charts. A player shares a similar value and said, “I can’t remember the last time I finished a game’s campaign then immediately started a new one other than BG3. The replay value is insane.”
At the time of writing, Baldur’s Gate 3 is only available to the PC players. However, its PS5 launch is approaching fast, meaning the console playerbase will get to experience the greatness of the game pretty soon.
