Crimson Desert, the open-world action RPG off-shoot from Korean MMO Black Desert Online, has officially launched, nearly six years after it was initially revealed. The game has been building up a lot of momentum over the years, which recently coalesced to turn it into one of 2026’s most anticipated titles.
All of it has been leading up to this moment, and the game appears to have landed smoothly, though not without controversy, as has seemingly become part of its MO.
It has not been 24 hours since Crimson Desert launched on PC and consoles, and it’s already become a big hit. On Steam, one of two stores where the game can be purchased (the other being the Epic Games Store), the game shot to the top of the charts.
The action RPG continued to accumulate more and more players on Steam, peaking at a very respectable 239,045 concurrent players (via SteamDB). Though its success was very much expected, we perhaps didn’t predict its peak would be that high.
Indeed, Crimson Desert has been in Steam’s top 100 global sellers list for six weeks, jumping up six spots to become the number one seller this week just before it launched. As we get closer to the weekend, the numbers could climb even higher.
This peak concurrent puts Crimson Desert in the same league as several of the other major releases of the first quarter of 2026. The top spot continues to belong to Slay the Spire 2, which peaked at a staggering 574,638 concurrent players. It happened just days after the juggernaut Resident Evil Requiem achieved its own 344,214 peak concurrent, which was the year’s highest up until Slay the Spire 2’s release. All three are well ahead of Nioh 3’s 88,045 peak concurrent, and Marathon’s nearly identical peak of 88,337.
Crimson Desert has seen something of a mixed reception by critics. James gave it three stars in our review, saying it “lacks the connective sinew to be truly functional,” which is a common criticism shared by other outlets. Many also lamented the sheer number of systems fighting for player attention, its poorly explained mechanics, and counterintuitive controls.
On Steam, at least, players have similarly been divided, with the current Steam user rating sitting at Mixed, based on 8,728 reviews. Unsurprisingly, most of the negative reactions fall on the clunky controls and the game’s tendency to, as one Steam user put it, “so miserably tries to be everything at once, and fails to be anything at all.”
If you’re just getting started in Crimson Desert yourself, or plan to do so soon, we recommend reading these crucial tips to help orient yourself in the game’s vast world. You should also plan your initial skill unlocks by prioritising these skills to spend your Abyss Artifacts first.
