This positions the game as one of the top three PC game launches of 2025 so far, sitting behind Schedule 1 and Monster Hunter Wilds.
Elden Ring: Nightreign has officially launched today, and within minutes, it’s already made its mark. According to SteamDB, the game pulled in over 250,000 players within the first 30 minutes of launch, climbing to 300,000 in less than an hour and reaching an all-time peak of 313,593 in less than 24 hours.
That makes it one of the Top 3 PC game launches of 2025 so far, sitting just behind Schedule 1 at 459,075 peak players, and far behind Monster Hunter: Wilds with 1,384,608 peak players in less than a month.
A strong debut, but not without setbacks
That early player count alone represents a huge portion of Elden Ring's record-breaking peak of 953,000 concurrent players. In fact, it's already surpassed the combined peak numbers of Dark Souls II, Dark Souls III, and Dark Souls Remastered, which together hovered around the 225,000 mark.
It’s worth noting this figure only accounts for the PC version through Steam. With console players joining from PlayStation and Xbox, Nightreign’s actual first-day audience is likely much higher.
Despite its strong debut, Nightreign hasn’t had the smoothest start when it comes to reception. On Steam, it’s currently the lowest-rated FromSoftware title, holding a Mixed rating due to issues like performance drops and inconsistent frame rates affecting some users.
Built as a multiplayer-driven evolution of the original 2022 game, Nightreign shifts away from the lonely path of the Tarnished and embraces larger-scale cooperative and competitive gameplay.
Set in an alternate version of Limveld, the starting region from the original game, Nightreign introduces players to a new loop: three-day expeditions where you play as a Nightfarer tasked with hunting down the Nightlords. Each successful run pushes players toward climactic battles, eventually leading to a final encounter with the Nightlord itself.
Familiar foes return
Fans of FromSoftware’s earlier titles may also run into some well-known enemies along the way. Nightreign features six adapted boss encounters taken from the Dark Souls series, with two pulled from each of the original trilogy. They don’t appear in every expedition, but when they do, they stand out, not just for their difficulty, but for the nostalgia they bring.
While the total number might be lower than some players expected, the bosses chosen are among the most iconic from the series. Each has been reworked to better fit Nightreign’s roguelite structure, but their attacks and presence should still strike a chord with longtime Soulsborne players.
