Nioh 3 launches, immediately becomes the most played Nioh ever on Steam

Just a few hours after launch, Nioh 3 is already the biggest release in series history on Steam.

It sounds like Koei Tecmo’s decision to finally release a Nioh game on PC day-and-date with PlayStation has paid off. The highly-anticipated Nioh 3 has gone live across both platforms, a first for a series that typically spends its initial release months as a console exclusive.

On Steam, and despite having only been available for just a few hours, the game has broken series records, and it continues to climb.

At the time of writing, Nioh 3 has peaked at 42,822 concurrent players on Steam (via SteamDB), and the number keeps going up. Because it’s in the middle of day in Europe and everyone is at work, it’s entirely possible - if not likely - that this figure will get much higher. A weekend bump is also possible, as we’ve seen with several recent releases.

As it stands, the current peak concurrent is enough to get the game in Steam’s top 20 most played games.

This already puts it ahead of all other Nioh games on Steam. The original Nioh peaked at 10,649 when it released in November, 2017. Nioh 2 fared much better, peaking at 41,325 concurrent players in February, 2021.

Image credit: Team Ninja, Koei Tecmo.

Of course, you could see that success coming a mile away. The game is currently number one worldwide in Steam’s list of top sellers. This is a jump of 46 positions, for a total of three weeks Nioh 3 has spent in that list.

There are many reasons as to why Nioh 3 has done as well as it has. Word of mouth coming off last year’s PS5-exclusive demo, and the more positive coverage that followed since are just two.

Just last week, Team Ninja released a pretty generous demo across both platforms, which has been well received by players, and likely contributed to sales, in no small part because progress in the demo carries over to the full game.

Critical reviews have been incredibly positive, too. We awarded the game four out of five stars, calling it “Team Ninja’s most accomplished action game, and the series’ most accessible.” It will be interesting to see what number the highest peak concurrent actually settles on over the weekend.

Until then, if you’re jumping in yourself, our Nioh 3 guides are essential reading. Start off with these useful and actually informative gameplay tips, and don’t start playing until you’ve changed these settings. Once you’re ready to get deeper, be sure to read up on how to play co-op with other players, and how to summon AI Acolytes to help you out.