On the evening of November 20, the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl took place. The game was launched on PC and Xbox Series, including Game Pass. Judging by the numbers, its debut on Steam was successful at the very least.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
According to SteamDB data, on the release day, the peak number of concurrent players in the Steam version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl reached 113,587 people, marking the best result in the series so far.
Previously, the record was held by S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl with a peak online of 2,308 players. It is important to note that SteamDB has been collecting data only since 2008, while S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was released in 2007, so it's unknown how many people played it simultaneously on Steam at its release.
Thanks to such excitement, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl positioned itself high among the releases of 2024 in terms of Steam online presence. It secured 19th place* between Liar’s Bar (113,798 players) and EA SPORTS FC 25 (110,026 players). It is quite likely that in the coming days, the newcomer will improve its standings.
Online presence of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl on Steam
By the time of this report, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl had received 8.4 thousand reviews on Steam, with 81% being positive. The game was also well-received by the specialized press, scoring 74–81 out of 100 on Metacritic, depending on the platform. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is praised for its setting, preservation of the spirit of the old games, and an engaging story. However, many critique it for technical issues. Studio GSC Game World has already promised to gradually improve the game's condition.
*We do not consider Banana (with over 917 thousand people online) because, according to the project's creators themselves, the majority of Banana's audience consists of bots, not real players. Also, games like V Rising and Sons of the Forest, which reached release in 2024 but peaked in online presence during previous years during early access, were not included in the list.