Path of Exile 2 has entered the top 15 most popular games in Steam's history, Steam's online count exceeded 39 million people for the first time, and the studio behind Life is Strange: Double Exposure has conducted layoffs — here is a recap of the key events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.
Path of Exile 2
- Late last week, the studio Grinding Gear Games launched early access for Path of Exile 2. The game's release was extraordinarily successful. According to SteamDB, at the time of writing, the peak concurrent users for the Steam version reached 578,569. This is 2.5 times more than the peak online users of the first part — for Path of Exile, it once stood at 229,337. Thanks to such hype, Path of Exile 2 managed to secure the 15th spot in the list of games with the highest concurrent users in Steam history, positioned between Apex Legends (624,473) and Valheim (502,387). As for reviews, Path of Exile 2 currently boasts a "very positive" rating on Steam, with 82% of 25,600 reviews being favorable.
- On the night of December 9, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was released on PC and Xbox Series consoles, including Game Pass. Before this, it was available in early access for three days for premium edition owners. Steam users warmly received the new game, giving it a "very positive" rating of 93% based on just over a thousand reviews. Its peak concurrent users on the Valve platform were 8,148.
- Amidst high-profile December releases, Steam updated its concurrent user record. On the evening of December 8, the platform reached 39.2 million concurrent users, with 12.09 million actively playing games. The record was largely due to the release of Path of Exile 2, Marvels Rivals (480,990 concurrent users), and Delta Force (118,964 concurrent users).
- Deck Nine Games, developers of Life Is Strange: True Colors and the recent Life is Strange: Double Exposure, announced layoffs. In a social media post, they described the decision as extremely difficult. Like many companies before them, Deck Nine Games linked the layoffs to the crisis in the gaming industry but provided no specifics. Notably, this is the second round of layoffs at Deck Nine Games in 2024. In February, the studio let go of 20% of its staff.