Total War: Three Kingdoms sets a series record for concurrent players

Total War: Three Kingdoms launched today and quickly set the series record for concurrent players. Over 160,000 people are fighting over ancient China at the time of publication, making it the fourth busiest game on Steam.

Three Kingdoms has a pretty solid lead over Warframe, but above it is the triumvirate of CS:GO, PUBG and Dota 2, all with over 500,000 concurrent players. It's a significant jump from the last Total War, Thrones of Britannia, which peaked at 22,787. The record was previously held by Rome 2 with 119,240 players.

"According to our records, it is indeed a record for the series on Steam," Creative Assembly's Richard Gittins confirmed with Eurogamer, "and hopefully as the rest of the world wake up, that number will keep going up."

Total War's long-awaited foray into China appears to have seduced a lot of new players. I thought I was perhaps done with historical Total War, getting more of my kicks from Warhammer instead, but Three Kingdoms has brought me back.

If you're wondering if you should jump into the war, check out Jody's Three Kingdoms review and me gushing about how damn good the diplomacy has finally become.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.