‘You played a combined 1225 years’: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ gamers played for well over a millennium on its historic launch weekend

It’s been just over a week since Baldur’s Gate III hit gamers’ laptops worldwide but it’s already in the running to seize the title of Game of the Year. Gamers are absolutely in love with the game and plenty of developers are feeling the heat from the successful, microtransaction-free game. Even with gamers singing the studio’s praises, the numbers from launch weekend are truly eye-opening. In a community update, Larian Studios shared the exact numbers from the weekend, and to say Baldur’s Gate III is stealing people’s lives would be an understatement.

In a bout of statistics to make any mathematician jig like they’ve been hit with Otto’s Irresistible Dance, Larian broke down all of the stats we never knew we needed. Gamers played a combined 1225 years, that’s more than 10 million hours total. Those gamers made up almost 30% of the players on Steam over the weekend, and the title boasted 800,000 concurrent players at one point. 368 madlads out in the world even managed to beat the game over the weekend.

93% of players chose to brave Baldur’s Gate III as a custom character, and that perfection took some serious time. Players spent a combined 88 years in character creation, with most taking more than an hour to refine their masterpieces.

Not only was Gale the most played Origin Character, but he was also the seventh leading cause of death for players. Though he was the most popular choice, Gale only beat out Karlach and Astarion by 5000 players, with the runners-up nearly tied. While we were busily distrusting Lae Zel (the Githyanki was the least selected Origin Character) Gale was busy blasting players into chasms.

Speaking of chasms, more than 800,000 players have opted for launching NPCs into the depth below, but despite this casual disregard for NPC life, more than half of players chose the path of diplomacy. 65% of players opted to save the Druid’s Grove. Shadowheart and Gale have captivated the most players romantically, but Astarion is the number one heartbreaker. The snobby elf has snubbed more than 100,000 gamers – me included.

Perhaps the most distressing statistic was the meager 750 thousand pets that the “goodest boy in all the realms” Scratch has been given. We’re just going to chalk that up to players missing out on finding the loyal pooch.