Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve has landed on Steam, and it is the biggest launch the series has ever had on PC. The sequel reached a peak of 52,694 concurrent players on Saturday, one day after its official launch on Friday. That number dwarfs everything that came before it in the franchise.
According to SteamDB, the peak was achieved during the game’s first weekend on sale. The figure is respectable by any standard, and it arrives at a moment when September-October releases have been doing very well commercially. Ace Combat 8 followed three days of early access before its official release on 2nd October.
A Long Time Coming
Ace Combat has historically been console-first. Most games in the series were never released on PC, so this kind of reception on Steam is new territory. The renaissance started with 2019’s Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, which released on PC days after PS4 and Xbox One and peaked at 13,758 concurrent players on Steam.
That number was Ace Combat’s biggest debut on PC at that point. Now Ace Combat 8 has exceeded it. The jump is all the more commendable because the series has spent years living almost entirely on consoles.
Players Are Happy
The current Steam user rating sits at Very Positive with over 5,755 reviews. Players appear to be happy with the game overall.
There was a small hitch along the way. Shortly after the game’s early access launch, a controversy erupted. Players were disappointed to find that Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, a pre-order bonus, is not a standalone app as they were led to believe. Instead, it has to be launched through Ace Combat 8, creating a lot of unnecessary problems.
“Bandai Namco has since apologised for the misleading wording on the store, and vowed to explore potential solutions.”
The company has promised to look into fixes. For now, the player base seems to have moved past the issue.
What the Numbers Mean
The Steam peak only measures PC players. We have no visibility on PlayStation and Xbox player numbers, so it is hard to say exactly how this compares to those platforms. It is hard to imagine them being anything but equal, at the very least.
What we can say is that Ace Combat 8 has arrived on Steam with real force. The 52,694 concurrent players on a single platform is the largest the series has ever seen on PC, and the Very Positive reviews back that up.
The Road Ahead
Ace Combat 8 has a long history, and it has spent most of that time on consoles. Now it has a major hit on PC as well.
The Very Positive rating is a strong signal that players are enjoying the game. The controversy over the pre-order bonus was a bump, but it appears to have been smoothed over quickly.
For Bandai Namco, the launch is a reminder that the Ace Combat formula still works. The franchise has a long history, and it has spent most of that time on consoles. Now it has a major hit on PC as well.
Ace Combat 8 has landed with a bang on Steam. The peak of 52,694 concurrent players is the largest the series has ever seen on PC, and the Very Positive reviews show players are enjoying the game. The pre-order bonus controversy was a bump, but it appears to have been smoothed over quickly.
Source material: “Ace Combat 8 is far and away the series' biggest launch on Steam,” Eurogamer.
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