Highlights

  • Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth surpasses previous concurrent player records on Steam, with over 34,000 players, thanks to its global multiplatform release.
  • The game's highly anticipated release was well-warranted, as it received positive reviews for its entertaining side content, turn-based combat, and compelling story.
  • Like a Dragon Gaiden, the precursor to Infinite Wealth, also had a successful launch on Steam, but Infinite Wealth exceeded its concurrent player count by over 20,000 players.

The release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has made it one of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's biggest launches to date, surpassing the last peak record of concurrent players on the Steam platform. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the eighth mainline game in the long-running franchise, featuring the same turn-based RPG combat and open-world exploration as its predecessor, Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

This game was one of the most highly anticipated games of January 2024, with fans being excited about seeing Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu teaming up together and sharing the spotlight as the dual protagonists. The fans' hype for Infinite Wealth was maintained by the release of Like a Dragon Gaiden, as it would help to set up some of the plot threads for the eighth entry and become one of the best launches for the franchise on Steam in the process. While Gaiden was a success, Infinite Wealth's release smashed through the franchise's previous concurrent Steam player record by a wide margin.

Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth DLC controversy
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How Many Concurrent Players Did Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Have?

SteamDB is a database that provides statistics and other information about the games sold on Valve's platform, such as the number of players concurrently playing at one time. According to SteamDB, Infinite Wealth managed to hit over 34,000 concurrent players a few hours after its release. This makes it one of the best Like a Dragon games to launch on the platform. This high number is likely due to Infinite Wealth having a global multiplatform launch, as opposed to games like Yakuza 0 or Judgment, which were games ported onto the Steam platform a few years after their initial launches on the PlayStation.

In comparison, the last peak record of concurrent players was set by Like a Dragon Gaiden, which had a peak of nearly 14,000 players around launch, making it a difference of a little over 20,000 concurrent players between the two releases. This number also surpassed the last mainline game, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which had a peak concurrent count of 9,535 players. As of this figure, the top five Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio games in terms of concurrent players would be, in order, Infinite Wealth, Gaiden, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Yakuza 0, and Ishin.

Like a Dragon Franchise Concurrent Steam Player Records

Best Yakuza Like a Dragon Studio Games Peak players
Ryu Ga Gotoku games organized by Steam concurrent players
  1. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - 34,344 concurrent players
  2. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name - 13,737 concurrent players
  3. Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 9,535 concurrent players
  4. Yakuza 0 - 8,985 concurrent players
  5. Like a Dragon: Ishin! - 8,461 concurrent players

The hype behind Infinite Wealth's release was well-warranted, with reviews for Infinite Wealth being very positive. Fans and critics have praised the game's entertaining side content, turn-based combat, as well as the poignant story that features new and familiar faces from the franchise's history. While there were some pre-launch controversies with Infinite Wealth, such as Sega announcing that its New Game Plus mode would be locked behind a paywall, many are enjoying Ichiban's open-world Hawaiian tour.