Horror fans have been waiting a long time for this, but GSC Game World finally releasedSTALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylunto the world yesterday. Amidst many setbacks – including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine – the team has had to push back development, partly to take care of themselves.
Fortunately, it looks like the wait has been worth it. As of right now,STALKER 2is rocking the Steam charts. It’s currently dominating theTop Sellerslist, coming in at number two just behind the Steam Deck. Of course, pretty much everything ends up behind the Deck. In terms of video games, GSC’s newest release is number one.
A message from the GSC Game World Team.Before you step into the Zone, we’d like to take a moment to share something from the heart.pic.twitter.com/wuLRAkq7Ba
That puts it ahead of the likes ofDisney Dreamlight Valley(which recently launched itsStorybook ValeDLC) andCounter-Strike 2, as well asCall of Duty: Black Ops 6, which fell a couple of places recently.
The numbers speak for themselves
The developer has expressed delight atSTALKER 2surpassing 100,000 concurrent players on PC. At the time of writing,SteamDBis showing 113,587 people logged into the game within the past 24 hours, with over 65,000 currently in a game.
Of course, this is common for new releases, especially ones many have been looking forward to. Games that have been hyped typically find themselves atop the Steam Top Sellers list, which does take into account pre-orders.
How longHeart of Chornobylwill stay up there is anyone’s guess, but we have seen a bunch of launches recently which could knock it down fairly quickly, such as the aforementionedDisney Dreamlight ValleyDLC, as well asMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2024.
No doubtSTALKER 2‘s biggest fans will stick around, though. In any case, GSC Game World has said it intends to stick around, and is proud of what’s been accomplished so far in what the studio is describing as its biggest project to date.
