By Split Fiction, the latest cooperative game created by writer-director Josef Fares and his Hazelight Studios, launched on March 6 and had an impressive opening weekend.
The game peaked at 259,003 simultaneous players on Steam on Sunday, March 9. This achievement places it as the second most-played game of all time published by EA in terms of Steam concurrency, only trailing the free-to-play battle royale game Apex Legends. These statistics are sourced from SteamDB and were initially noted by Twisted Voxel.
The top five EA titles on Steam ranked by peak concurrent players are:
- Apex Legends – 624,473
- Split Fiction – 259,003
- Battlefield V – 116,104
- EA Sports FIFA 23 – 110,878
- EA Sports FC 25 – 110,026
It is also noteworthy that EA avoided Steam for a significant period, opting instead to release its games on its own PC platform. The company returned its titles to Steam in 2019.
Hazelight’s previous release, It Takes Two, saw a peak of 71,039, meaning Split Fiction is considerably larger than that title. Not only is Split Fiction highly favored, but it is also receiving outstanding reviews. At GameSpot, our Split Fiction review awarded it a perfect 10/10. On GameSpot’s sister site, Metacritic, Split Fiction (91) is EA’s first title to achieve an aggregate score of 90 or higher in the last decade, the last title to do so being 2012’s Mass Effect 3.
It is important to note that not everyone enjoying Split Fiction has necessarily purchased a copy of the game. This is because the game features a Friend’s Pass system that allows only one person to buy a copy. Additionally, Split Fiction will be available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, meaning the Steam statistics only represent a portion of the game’s overall reach and popularity.
Sony and Microsoft do not disclose concurrent player figures. However, Hazelight recently announced that Split Fiction achieved 1 million sales within the game’s first 48 hours.
The game has hefty shoes to fill, as It Takes Two sold an impressive 23 million units. The development budget for Split Fiction was almost “double” that of It Takes Two, according to Fares.
After Fares created the critically acclaimed Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons with Starbreeze, he established his own studio, Hazelight. The studio is primarily recognized for its co-op-only games and has released three titles to date: A Way Out, It Takes Two, and Split Fiction. All three have been published by EA under its EA Originals label. Hazelight continues to be a reputable studio.
Fares has been vocal about his disdain for microtransactions and live-service components, which contradicts two of the fundamental tenets of EA’s business model. Hazelight