The year’s most anticipated Resident Evil is poised to become the most successful game of the franchise.
If you logged into Steam this weekend, chances are your friends list was drowning in one specific game: Resident Evil Requiem. What was meant to be another big launch for Capcom has quickly turned into something much bigger for the franchise. It’s shaping up to be the biggest Resident Evil release the franchise has ever seen.
Unlike several recent entries, Requiem is not a remake. It is a brand-new mainline instalment in the long-running survival horror series, which makes its performance even more notable within the context of the franchise’s PC history.
At the time of writing, the single-player horror title has reached an all-time concurrent peak of 344,214 players on Steam alone, according to SteamDB. The game launched to 246,185 concurrent players upon release on Steam last 27 February, and quickly increased as the weekend progressed, peaking at 344,214 on Saturday (28 February, 11PM SGT).
For comparison, that figure is over double the Steam peak of Resident Evil 4 Remake which had a peak player count of 161,191 three years ago on Steam, and roughly three times that of its predecessor, Resident Evil Village, which peaked at 106,631 players.
Looking further back, the gap widens. Resident Evil 2 recorded a Steam peak of 74,227 players, while Resident Evil 3 reached 60,293. Meanwhile, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard only peaked at 20,449 on Valve’s platform.
Of course, these numbers do not account for players on PlayStation or Xbox, nor those purchasing through alternative PC storefronts such as the Epic Games Store, which ran a pre-order promo that offered a free Grace Ashcroft skin for Fortnite.
Resident Evil Requiem outpaces multiplayer games Destiny 2, Monster Hunter: World, and more on Steam
Overall, Resident Evil Requiem ranks 40th for peak concurrent players, a figure that also surpasses the all-time Steam records of several major multiplayer titles. For comparison, Bungie’s Destiny 2 peaked at 316,750 conccurent players during its time of popularity while FromSoftware's Elden Ring Nightreign only reached 313,593. Meanwhile, Monster Hunter: World came close at 334,684.
When it comes to genre, Resident Evil ranks second in the survival horror genre, and fourth in the horror genre.
Despite the game’s successful launch, not everything went smoothly. Ahead of release, early copies of the game circulated and multiple spoilers surfaced online, with Capcom acknowledging the situation during the final weekend before launch.
The leaks prompted a reaction from Hideki Kamiya, director of Resident Evil 2, who had strong words for those responsible, suggesting that they be “cursed to never play the game again.”
Despite the situation around spoilers right before launch, a return to Raccoon City has still clearly resonated with players, though official sales figures across all platforms have yet to be confirmed.
