Despite a rocky start, Crimson Desert is seeing its reception improve. At release, Pearl Abyss’ ambitious open-world title received a divisive reception, with critics calling it “overstuffed” and “unpolished” despite strong combat and visuals. The result was a 78 Metacritic score and a 30% drop in Pearl Abyss’s share price.

Today the winds have changed. The Steam reviews have crossed from “Mixed” to “Mostly Positive”, and Crimson Desert has hit a new record for its concurrent player count on Steam at close to a quarter million concurrent players.

Crimson Desert Steam Player Count

For reference, Crimson Desert peaked at just shy of 240K concurrent Steam players on launch day. Since then, the game has sustained steady numbers, but saw a sudden uptick yesterday.

According to SteamDB, the game ended up reaching a peak of 248,530 players on Sunday, and impressive growth despite its rocky reception. This new peak comes after an improved reception across social media and platforms like Steam.

Crimson Desert Reigns Over Revenue Rankings

Further highlighting its momentum, Pearl Abyss’s opus is at the top of Steam’s best-sellers by revenue, and has been in the top 100 for the past five weeks.

Improving Reviews And Impressions

At release, Crimson Desert’s Steam reviews were “Mixed”, today they’re “Mostly Positive” with 76% of 19,212 reviews being positive.

Fans are saying that beneath the rough controls and slow-paced narrative lies an experience that only gets better with time. Overall, the tide seems to be shifting for Pearl Abyss following mixed impressions and reviews at launch.

Also, players have commended the team’s efforts on patching the title. Patch 1.00.03 brings some much-needed improvements to the game, addressing criticisms regarding the awkward controls, storage limitations, and more.