Peak concurrent player counts for Dragon Age: The Veilguard topped out at 89,418 on Sunday night indicating the game did not become a breakout success.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard SteamDB peak concurrent player charts
Ahead of the game’s release EA CEO Andrew Wilson touted the game to investors claiming it had “breakout potential,” but based on these peak concurrent player counts that does not appear to be the case.
Wilson said, “I certainly think Veilguard has breakout potential. Again, 10 years ago, Dragon Age: Inquisition won Game of the Year and was a very strong performer for us in the conduct of our business. This is entertainment. And so while much of our business has moved to live service moment-to-moment, deliver innovation and creativity for a deeply engaged community over the course of time, this opportunity to bring in incredibly high quality, creative storytelling set in an amazing world with rich characters living out those stories you’re able to capture that moment in entertainment. Success almost certainly follows.”
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
He explained, “And we see that in the context of movies, and we’re seeing in the context of TV seasons, and we see in the context of video games. When we think about what we have with Veilguard right now, we have a storied studio in BioWare. We have a storied IP in Dragon Age. We have a team that took extra time to make sure the world was rich and the characters were interesting and the story was compelling. I think we are going into a market that has limited competition for this category of game given some of the moves that have happened across the broader industry.”
“And so while I think it’s too early to predict the outcome, the critical reviews have been incredibly strong. The team feels really energized by what they have delivered. And my sense is that, yes, it has breakout capabilities,” he reiterated.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
That breakout potential quickly fizzled throughout the weekend as SteamDB only peaked at 89,418 concurrent players as noted above. That is a far cry from other current releases that did see breakout success including Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, which had a peak concurrent of 225,690 when it released back in September. Space Marine 2 had a 152.3% higher peak concurrent player count.
Black Myth: Wukong became a massive breakout success over the summer hitting a peak concurrent player count of 2.4 million when it released in August. Wukong had a peak concurrent player count greater than 2601.5% compared to Veilguard. In fact, the game had a higher peak concurrent player count in the past 24 hours than Veilguard with 110,136.
Black Myth: Wukong SteamDB peak concurrent player charts
If you compare the game to breakout successes from the past couple of years, it’s very obvious that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is not a hit. Elden Ring hit a peak concurrent player count of 953,426 when it released in February 2022. Even earlier this year the game hit a peak concurrent of 781, 261 when the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC released. Elden Ring’s peak concurrent was 966.2% higher than Veilguard’s.
Baldur’s Gate 3 hit an all-time peak concurrent of 875,343 when it released in August 2023. That’s 878.9% higher than Veilguard. Like Black Myth: Wukong it also had a higher 24-hour peak higher than Dragon Age: The Veilguard with 101,093 concurrent players.
Baldur’s Gate 3 SteamDB peak concurrent player charts
Former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern aka Grummz shared his professional opinion that the game’s poor concurrent peak player counts for a AAA launch indicate that game is underperforming. On the game’s release day when it only hit a peak concurrent of 70,414, he said, “Here is why this is concerning, and how I feel Dragon Age is already underperforming (for a AAA game).”
Next, he explained, “It’s true California isn’t online yet, but people joining earlier are leaving the game, or you would see the curve stack more. It’s about session time. Long form RPGs tend to have really long session times vs, say FPS games. But we’re not seeing that here. People are logging off after a relatively short about of time. You would expect that east coast would still be playing as California came online, but they are not. This means session times are low, perhaps 2-3 hours, which, for an RPG on launch day, is not great. There is no cumulative effect here as east coast plays and west coast joins them.
He then speculated, “It may mean players tried it and got tired of it early (not good), but I think we are starting to see the Dragon Age Bait and Switch effect, as the gamers look and feel is very different from its predecessors, as well as the effect of all the preachy DEI that is self evident in the game.”
“When you have AA games with much smaller publishers doing 300k or so, money guys are going to ask what they are spending so much more for,” he concluded. “If weekend numbers don’t go higher, this also means that players who tried it today are not coming back to try it again over the weekend. This would be very unusual.”
Here is why this is concerning, and how I feel Dragon Age is already underperforming (for a AAA game).
It’s true California isn’t online yet, but people joining earlier are leaving the game, or you would see the curve stack more. It’s about session time.
Long form RPGs tend to… pic.twitter.com/qsn8CLEvRw
— Grummz (@Grummz) October 31, 2024
What do you make of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s peak concurrent player counts?
