Divinity Announcement Sparks ‘Incredible’ Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 Sales, Larian Boss Says
Last month’s announcement of Divinity has sparked a significant increase in sales of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2, developer Larian has said.
Divinity, announced at The Game Awards in December with a much-discussed trailer, is the next role-playing game from Larian following the enormous success of its 2023 Dungeons & Dragons-themed role-playing game. And it’s Baldur’s Gate 3 that has shown remarkable staying power, particularly on Steam where it is still seeing peak concurrent player numbers above 100,000 despite being two-and-a-half years old.
2017’s Divinity: Original Sin 2, meanwhile, has also seen an uptick in players following the Divinity announcement, with peak concurrents in the tens of thousands rather than thousands in the weeks since. (If you’re wondering what Divinity is, check out IGN’s handy explainer.)
According to Larian boss Swen Vincke, it’s not just that people who already own Baldur’s Gate 3 or Divinity: Original Sin 2 are returning to the game. People are buying both games in significant numbers and jumping in for the first time.
“Sales for both BG3 and D:OS2 have been incredible since the announcement of Divinity,” Vincke said. “D:OS2 really surprised us by having its best month since release in 2017. Wish I’d removed the squirrel in time :)”
Typically, multiplayer live service games are expected to retain a large playerbase over the course of years, with revenue generated by the sale of in-game items such as battle passes, cosmetics, and DLC add-ons. Indeed, Steam’s top 10 most-played games are packed with live service games such as Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG.
But there are some single-player games that buck this trend. Bethesda’s single-player RPGs such as Skyrim and Fallout are usually there or thereabouts in terms of Steam popularity. CD Projekt’s The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 remain hugely popular even now, years after launch. And Baldur’s Gate 3 is perhaps top of the single-player tree, with renewed interest in all things Larian following the Divinity reveal fueling it further.
Speaking of Divinity, Larian recently held a reddit AMA to answer questions from fans. Here’s everything we learned about Divinity from it.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
