Persona 3 Reload is Atlus' best Steam launch, but it's got nothing on Granblue Fantasy: Relink

The start of the year has been pretty stacked with big JRPGs like Persona 3 Reload and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but surprisingly, it's Granblue Fantasy: Relink that's coming out on top.

Persona 3 Reload has easily been one of the most highly anticipated titles for 2024, given that it's a remake of a beloved entry in a series with a very passionate fanbase. It seems to have had a pretty successful launch on Steam, too, as according to SteamDB, within the first couple of days since it launched last week, it hit a concurrent player count peak of 45,000. That's definitely a nice healthy stat for certain, in fact it's Atlus' best Steam launch yet, but SteamDB's stats for Granblue Fantasy: Relink show that in the same timeframe, the action RPG hit a concurrent player count peak of 103,000, more than double than that of Persona 3 Reload's. That wasn't even the game's peak for the weekend, as it went even further to 114,000, whereas Reload didn't go higher than 45,000.

For comparison's sake, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth hit 46,000 in the same time frame, so again Granblue Fantasy: Relink has managed to eclipse two of this year's hottest titles. It could be because of Granblue Fantasy's pre-established mobile game player base, but all three titles do have long-running audiences, so who knows what the cause could be. As always, we also don't have any stats for console players, so it could be a different story there for all we know. Either way, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is proving surprisingly popular on Steam, with as many as 69,042 people playing right now at the time of writing (26,695 people are playing Persona 3 Reload, and 18,890 are playing LaD: Infinite Wealth right now to compare).

If you're curious about Granblue Fantasy: Relink yourself, I reviewed the game and came away feeling very positive about its combat, though the story left me wanting.