Bandai Namco's latest Tales RPG Tales of Arise has already broken concurrent Steam player records set by Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria. The competition isn't even close, either; Arise is looking like the most popular Tales game in a long time.
What is Tales of Arise's concurrent Steam player count record?
According to Steam stat aggregator SteamDB, Tales of Arise is currently sitting at a peak count of 36,352 concurrent players. When PCGamesN reported this story earlier today, that count was at 30,887, which means it's jumped by more than 5,500 in a very short space of time indeed. Given that Tales of Arise launched only yesterday and that many players won't have had the time to truly sit down and get immersed in it yet, that's a very impressive statistic.
For comparison, here are a few numbers from previous entries in the series. Tales of Berseria hit 8,085 concurrent players at its all-time peak. Tales of Zestiria's peak player count is 9,696, while Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition has a rather measly 3,450 peak player count. It's worth noting that many of the Tales games aren't currently available on Steam, but even so, it's hard to imagine any of them beating Tales of Arise's impressive peak count. That number may well increase over the weekend, too, as players get to grips with Arise and get a little more time to check it out.
What is Tales of Arise?
Tales of Arise is the seventeeth mainline entry in the long-running Tales RPG series, which began back in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia. Originally announced at E3 2019, producer Yusuke Tomizawa's stated aim with Tales of Arise was to reinvigorate the series, which many saw as a niche franchise that appealed only to existing fans. The game doesn't continue any of the existing Tales stories, instead focusing on a brand new narrative. It's built on Unreal Engine 4, allowing for greater graphical fidelity compared to previous entries in the franchise. The combat has also undergone some changes, again with a view to bringing in uninitiated audiences. With that said, Tomizawa reckons Arise won't leave behind any of Bandai Namco's hardcore Tales faithful.
You can pick up Tales of Arise right now on PlayStation consoles, Xbox platforms, and PC. It's playable on both PS5 and PS4, as well as Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. If you're still looking for reasons to give this one a look, make sure to check out our review, in which we wax lyrical about its many charms. Why not add to that concurrent player count and give Bandai Namco even more reasons to make more Tales games?
Are you going to check out Tales of Arise? Are you playing it right now? Let us know in the comments below!