Baldur's Gate 3 is making as big a splash as many of us had anticipated and possibly even more. Yesterday, the game had broken 450K concurrent players on Steam. Today, it has already broken a new peak record with 532K players according to SteamDB, and it's worth noting Baldur's Gate 3 is also available on GOG.com (where it is DRM-free), whose figures are obviously not counted here.

　　This already ranks Baldur's Gate 3 as the #11th game in Steam's all-time concurrent player peak chart, behind only the likes of PUBG, CS: GO, Lost Ark, Dota 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, New World, Hogwarts Legacy, Goose Goose Duck, and Apex Legends. Some of those games are free-to-play, which is an undeniable boon when it comes to ranking in these charts. The comparison with other cRPGs is even rosier, as it pits Baldur's Gate 3 against Larian's previous game (Divinity: Original Sin 2) which only ever reached 93.7K concurrent players on Steam, nearly a sixth of BG3.

　　Other contenders are far lower in the category. Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity stopped at 41.9K, and inXile's Wasteland 3 peaked at 24.5K, just above Shadowrun Returns from Harebrained Schemes (24.3K). Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire barely tops Owlcat Games' Pathfinder: Kingmaker (22.7K vs. 22.6K), with Divinity: Original Sin stuck at 22K flat. Everything else registered below 20K concurrent players. While it's too early to say definitively, it looks like Larian may have found their answer on whether there would be a sizable market for a triple-A cRPG, arguably a first on this scale.

　　All of this is great news for the future of the genre and for Larian projects specifically, but most PC gamers are right now diving into dungeons and talking their way into the good graces of all sorts of NPCs, enjoying the amazing story and characters created by the studio. On that note, though, the party limitation imposed by Larian may be a bit restricting for some users. You can only adventure with a party of four, while any other companions will have to wait at the camp.

　　Luckily, a Party Size mod already emerged to save the day, allowing Baldur's Gate 3 players to increase the number of concurrent characters in their party up to eight. One additional benefit is that you'll get to watch the various reactions of several characters who would otherwise be confined to another playthrough if you left them at the camp.

　　There is one caveat: the party increase currently only works in single player, as multiplayer appears to be still limited to four players. The mod's author promised to look into this, but it's alright since you should be playing solo first anyway.

　　I've tested the Party Size mod myself (I captured the featured image from my session) and have a couple of tips for the installation. While the mod's description doesn't mention it, you first need to add the Full Release Mod Fixer; otherwise, it won't work. Once that's done, just drop the Party Size mod in the Mods folder (inside Baldur's Gate 3/Data), go into the game, and reach the camp. There, ask one of your current companions to wait at the camp, and you should subsequently have the chance to add them back and the extra others, too. If you do expand your party's size limit, try to compensate by upping the difficulty to Tactician, or the game may feel too easy then.

　　More Baldur's Gate 3 mods are being updated and created as we speak. We'll soon make a list of the best ones - stay tuned.