Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 has become available for buyers of its deluxe editions. Let’s dive into some early metrics for Saber’s first major release since its split from Embracer Group.
UPDATE (September 10): Space Marine 2 peaked at over 225k concurrent players following its global launch on September 9. This not only makes it the 8th biggest Steam release of 2024 by peak CCU, but also the biggest Warhammer game by this metric. On September 10, publisher Focus Entertainment also revealed that Space Marine 2 has already reached 2 million players.
Launched in Advanced Access on September 5, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 received warm reception from critics, with its average score on Metacritic ranging from 82 (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S) to 83 (PC).
At the time of writing, it only has a few mixed reviews. For example, PCGamesN criticized the story and mission design, while PC Gamer called its action “messy.” Both outlets rated the game 6/10, but others praised most elements of the project, especially the gameplay, graphics, and careful reproduction of the Warhammer universe.
When it comes to player reception, everything is a bit odd now. Space Marine 2 received a lot of negative reviews from Steam users, resulting in a “Mixed” rating. The main complaints are the need to sign Epic Games’ EULA and the lack of support for ultrawide monitors.
It is worth noting that Saber Interactive plans to add ultrawide support in one of the free updates later this month. In terms of the Epic Online Services client, one of the devs explained that this feature “was implemented to support optional cross-play between Steam and Epic players and to synchronize friend lists between the two stores, and that this is not mandatory in order to play the game.”
Although Space Marine launched with just 54% positive reviews on the platform, its user score quickly started improving. At the time of writing, the game has a “Mostly Positive” rating, with 75% of the 6.9k reviews being positive.
In less than 12 hours after its Advanced Access launch, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 peaked at 134,302 concurrent players (via SteamDB). The numbers will likely increase over the weekend, not to mention even more users will join the game on September 9 when it launches globally for standard edition buyers.
It will also be interesting to see how Space Marine 2 will retain players in the coming weeks, especially given its co-op features.
Such an impressive result already ranks Space Marine 2 as the 11th biggest Steam release of 2024 by peak CCU*:
*Note: The list doesn’t include several games from the SteamDB charts: Banana, which peaked at over 917k concurrent users, because a) it is more of an app for speculations rather than a game (people keep it launched for hours to get tradable cards) and b) it is unclear how many of those are bots; and games that reached their peak prior to 2024 (mostly Early Access graduates like Sons of the Forest and V Rising).
- Black Myth: Wukong — 2.4 million CCU
- Palworld — 2.1 million CCU
- Helldivers 2 — 458.7k CCU
- The First Descendant (free-to-play) — 264.8k CCU
- Last Epoch — 264.7k CCU
- Once Human (free-to-play) — 231.6k CCU
- Dragon’s Dogma 2 — 228.5 CCU
- Content Warning — 204.4k CCU (reached its peak while being free-to-keep in the first 24 hours of launch)
- Manor Lords — 173.1k CCU
- Enshrouded — 160.4k CCU
- Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 — 134.3k CCU
The 134.4k peak makes Space Marine 2 the biggest Steam game published by Focus Entertainment by this metric. It is way ahead of other titles like Atomic Heart (38.4k CCU), My Time at Sandrock (21.7k CCU), GreedFall (16.3k CCU), and Vampyr (16.1k CCU).
The game also has the highest concurrent player count across Saber Interactive’s portfolio by a wide margin, with the exception Halo: The Master Chief Collection (the studio served as a co-developer alongside 343 Industries, Splash Damage, Bungie, and Ruffian Games). Space Marine is followed by SnowRunner (11.1k CCU), Mudrunner (8.6k CCU), and Gloomhaven (6.9k CCU).
When looking at other Warhammer titles, Space Marine 2 ranks 2nd in peak CCU — behind only Total War: Warhammer III (166.7k CCU). Other popular games include Total War: Warhammer (113k CCU), Warhammer 40k: Darktide (108.3k CCU), and Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader (45.4k CCU), with the first Space Marine (15.6k CCU) rounding out the top 10.
Top Warhammer games on Steam by peak concurrent players (via SteamDB)
The original Space Marine was developed by Relic Entertainment, which previously contributed to the Warhammer universe with its Dawn of War series. According to publisher THQ, the game shipped 1.2 million copies globally in the first three weeks of its September 2011 launch.
After Embracer Group acquired the THQ trademark and turned into an expanding holding company, the sequel was eventually handed over to its then-subsidiary Saber Interactive. In March 2024, Embracer announced a $247 divestment of Saber as part of its business restructuring.
Space Marine 2 is the studio’s first major release after going independent again. So its strong launch is a promising sign for its future position in the market.