New JRPG is Off to an Incredibly Strong Start on Steam

Granblue Fantasy: Relink has had an incredible start on Steam, reaching a peak concurrent player count that surpasses the likes of Persona 3 Reload and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth during its launch. Granblue Fantasy: Relink notably had an incredibly troubled development, being first announced in 2016 as a collaboration between PlatinumGames and Cygames. It then later restarted development in-house under Cygames a few years later, where it was then delayed multiple times. Relink finally launched on February 1, 2024, after much anticipation.

Relink had some stiff competition going into launch, as two greatly anticipated 2024 JRPGs were releasing around the same time: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload. Infinite Wealth launched a week before Relink on January 26, while Persona 3 Reload launched a day after Relink. Despite the competition, Granblue Fantasy: Relink has managed to stand out against the two games and surpass their concurrent peak player numbers on Steam.

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These numbers were based on a chart on SteamDB, a database that catalogs the statistics about the latest games released on the platform. According to SteamDB, Relink has managed to reach over 114,000 concurrent players during the weekend of its launch. This is greater than the concurrent player peaks of Reload and Infinite Wealth, which had peaks of roughly over 45,000 and 46,000 players on the platform, both being some of the strongest launches their franchises had on Steam. While Relink‘s concurrent player count doesn’t reach the numbers of other action JRPGs on the platform, like Elden Ring or Monster Hunter: World, Relink‘s launch is still an incredible milestone for the Granblue Fantasy franchise.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s Concurrent Player Comparison

• Granblue Fantasy: Relink – 114,054 concurrent players
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth – 46,161 concurrent players
• Persona 3 Reload – 45,002 concurrent players

The high number of Relink players likely comes from Granblue Fantasy‘s already large mobile user base. Relink has an online co-op multiplayer mode, offering a good reason why multiple gamers will be playing the game at one time. This is justified further by how Relink‘s quest design and progression are borrowed from Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise, which places emphasis on defeating monsters with other players. Relink‘s post-game missions are even recommended to be tackled with other players instead of CPUs in order to make the fights easier.

Reviews for Granblue Fantasy: Relink are glowingly positive, with praise being given to how the mobile RPG’s mechanics were translated into an action RPG setting. Despite the tumultuous road to release, Granblue Fantasy: Relink proves to be a standout RPG that can hold its own against its contemporaries and a game fans consider to be worth waiting for.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink

Set in the same universe as 2014’s Granblue Fantasy, Cygames’ Granblue Fantasy: Relink is an action JRPG that was announced in 2016. Although primarily regarded as a single-player experience, Relink also supports co-op.

Released

February 1, 2024

Developer(s)

Cygames

Publisher(s)

Cygames