Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the most popular Steam launch of 2019

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the latest game from the creators of the Dark Souls series and Bloodborne, is one of the best games of the year right now – and players seem to agree. Not only has the game sold well on PC, it’s tracking at around 125,000 concurrent users on Steam – which makes it the biggest launch of any game on Steam this year so far.

The game sold over 100,000 copies on PC in the first 24 hours of release, and hit a peak of 125,315 concurrent players yesterday. By comparison, the second biggest launch on Steam, Devil May Cry 5, only managed a peak of 88,894 concurrent users.

Over the last 30 days, the ever-popular Grand Theft Auto 5 barely managed to top Sekiro with 126,518 concurrent users. Other games Sekiro’s beating right now include Warframe, Team Fortress 2, ARK: Survival Evolved, and Path of Exile. Apart from GTA5, only the ever-popular DOTA 2, Counter-Strike Global Offensive, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Rainbow Six Siege are beating Sekiro in terms of concurrent users – very impressive for a single-player-only game.

This is all according to SteamCharts (via Spiel Times). It’s also worth noting that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has become the third most-popular Japanese launch ever on Steam. Devil May Cry 5 is the fifth, after Metal Gear Solid 5. Monster Hunter World is top, with around 227,644 concurrent players at its peak after launch – and From Software’s own Dark Souls III stands as the second most-popular Japanese Steam launch.

Related: the best games like Dark Souls on PC

It’s also worth keeping in mind that Sekiro has no piracy protection, and was reportedly cracked a day before release. Nevertheless, this does not appear to have affected its sales, or player enjoyment. We’re currently loving the game, although our reviewer needs a bit more punishment before he decides on a final score.

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