Baldur’s Gate 3 has been played and completed by over 1.3 million people
According to developer Larian Studios, more than 1.3 million people have played and completed Baldur’s Gate 3. The vast majority of those players, 1.24 million in total, were transformed into sentient wheels of cheese at some point during their gameplay. That’s a lot of cheese bouncing around! Baldur’s Gate 3 was released on August 3 for Windows PC and Mac, and Larian’s latest statistics reveal how many people played the wildly popular role-playing game set in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy world.
It should come as no surprise that 94% of players created a custom character, with those players spending a “combined 8,196 years” perfecting their avatar. You can, however, play as one of several characters in Baldur’s Gate 3, the most popular of which was Gale, followed by Astarion. Karlach and Shadowheart are nearly tied for third, with Wyll and Lae’zel following. Furthermore, for those who aren’t playing as them, Karlach and Shadowheart are among the most popular romantic interests. But Shadowheart is the clear leader, with 51.3% of players who reached the “final act of her romance arc” booing her. Karlach and Lae’zel are next.
Speaking of romance, you may have heard of the bear sex in Baldur’s Gate 3. Halsin the Druid is a romanticable character in the game; part of his act is that he can transform into a bear. You can also have sex with Halsin while he’s in bear form. As it turns out, most Halsin lovers prefer not to “bear all,” as Larian put it, and seduce him in his human form.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has been played for nearly 51,662 years or 452,556,984 hours. That’s a lot of work! On November 30, Larian released a patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 that added two new modes of play: Custom Mode and Honour Mode. Custom mode allows players to choose how they want to play, and Honour Mode allows only a single save file, no save scumming. And in Honour Mode, you only have one life. It’s essentially the most difficult way to play Baldur’s Gate 3, and players are rewarded with a golden d20. Only 464 parties have completed the game using that mode since Larian added it in late November, while around 158,000 have started Honour Mode runs. During their attempts, over 34,000 players have died.
Stats like these are a fun way to see how people interact with a game like Baldur’s Gate 3, where you have a lot of options. The game has a huge community, one that appears to be united by their time spent as a cheese wheel.