Baldur’s Gate 3 has seen a significant boost in player numbers on Steam following the release of the hotly anticipated Patch 8, and this has set developer Larian up nicely to focus on its next big game.
The enormous, game-changing Patch 8 launched last week and with it added 12 new subclasses to Baldur’s Gate 3. Its release sparked a player surge as fans flocked to test out the new subclasses as well as the brand new photo mode.
On Steam, Baldur’s Gate 3 hit a player concurrent peak of 169,267 over the weekend — an incredible feat for a single-player focused role-playing game in its second year. Sony and Microsoft do not make PlayStation nor Xbox player numbers publicly available.
Reflecting on the release of Patch 8, Larian chief Swen Vincke tweeted to say he expects Baldur’s Gate 3 to “continue to do well for quite some time,” not just because of the Patch 8 player boost, but because of “thriving” mod support.
This in turn gives Larian “room to focus on making our next big thing as good as we can,” Vincke continued. “We’ve got big shoes to fill.”
“Feeling good today about where we are with BG3,” Vincke said. “Patch 8 got a lot of people playing again. It took a lot of development effort but I’m happy we did it.
“With mod support thriving, I think the game will now continue to do well for quite some time. It gives us room to focus on making our next big thing as good as we can and that focus is more than welcome. We’ve got big shoes to fill.”
Patch 8, as Larian has signalled, is the final major update for the game and draws a line under what has been a remarkable time for the developer. Baldur’s Gate 3 launched to critical acclaim and enormous commercial success back in 2023, and has continued to sell strongly throughout 2024 and into 2025.
Larian shocked the gaming world by confirming its intention to leave Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dungeons & Dragons behind to work on a brand new game, which it teased at various points before announcing a media blackout to focus on the new mystery project.
D&D owner Hasbro, however, has teased plans to continue with the series. Speaking to IGN at the Game Developers Conference, SVP of digital games at Hasbro, Dan Ayoub, let on that with Larian moving on, Hasbro has “a lot of people very interested in Baldur’s Gate.”
“We’re kind of working out our plans for the future and what we’re going to be doing with that,” Ayoub said. “And actually, in pretty short order, we’re going to have some stuff to talk about around that.”
Ayoub didn’t offer any further information about whether this “stuff” would be a full-blown new Baldur’s Gate in the works, or some sort of crossover like the characters had with Magic: The Gathering previously. However, he did acknowledge that he eventually wants a Baldur’s Gate 4, but that making one will likely take a while.
“It’s somewhat of an unenviable position,” he said. “I mean, we’re not in a hurry. Right? That’s the thing, we’re going to take a very measured approach… We’ve got a lot of plans, a lot of different ways to go about it. We’re starting to think about, okay, yeah, we’re ready to start dipping toes a little bit and talking about a few things. And I think, in really short order, like I said, again, not to over-tease that point, we’re going to have some other things to talk about around that.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
