Nioh 3 has shattered the series’ record for the highest concurrent player count on Steam. Team Ninja reached its 30th anniversary in 2025, and as part of its celebration of that milestone, the studio announced a third entry in the beloved Nioh series during a PlayStation State of Play. Unlike the previous two games, though, Nioh 3 got a PC release on the same day as its PlayStation debut, and it seems like that decision has paid off.
Team Ninja’s latest Soulslike started gaining traction almost immediately after its June 2025 announcement and simultaneous PS5 demo. With FromSoftware’s upcoming The Duskbloods being a PVP Switch 2 title, fans noticed that Nioh 3 could fill the single-player Soulslike void left by the genre’s most iconic studio. A five-year gap since the last Nioh entry came out certainly didn’t hurt the hype, and now that the game has been released, it’s already living up to those expectations. That may not be surprising given the series’ reputation to date, but it’s still a record-setting debut for the franchise.
Nioh 3 Was Directly Inspired by an Incredible Non-FromSoftware Soulslike That Released in 2023
Team Ninja shares new insights into the making of Nioh 3, including the identity of a 2023 soulslike that inspired large portions of the game.
Nioh 3 Passes 88,000 Concurrent Players on Steam
Data from SteamDB shows that Nioh 3 reached a peak of 88,045 simultaneous Steam players on February 8, 2026. That’s just two days after the game came out and is far and away the series’ highest PC player count so far. This performance was also enough to make the Soulslike the seventh top-selling game on Steam at the time of writing, and it’s currently the fourth most-wishlisted title on the platform, which could suggest more PC users are still itching to play it. All of that also comes despite Nioh 3 requiring some optimization to run well on PC, making the achievement even more impressive.
For comparison, Nioh 2 peaked at just over 41,000 concurrent players on Steam, and the first Nioh reached rouhgly 10,600. That means Team Ninja’s latest attempt got double the simultaneous PC players as its predecessor and more than eight times as many as the game that started it all. It’s not that the first two games in the series were disliked by players, either. Some call Nioh 2 one of the best Soulslike games for combat, and both of the first two titles have received near-unanimous praise. So far, it seems that Nioh 3 is continuing that trend, with a “Very Positive” Steam rating accompanying its surging player count.
There’s still room for the game to grow, too, as it hasn’t even been out for a full week at this point. With Nioh 3 pushing the Nioh series to new heights, there seems to be plenty for both longtime fans and newcomers to the franchise to enjoy, especially if it will be a couple of years before FromSoftware releases a new single-player Soulslike. If future updates address some bugs and performance issues, it could help the game continue its strong showing on PC, and that doesn’t even include the PS5 audience.
The latest Nioh could set a new precedent for the franchise beyond its popularity on PC, too. Fans have spotted that Nioh 3 will only be a PS5 console exclusive for six months, potentially setting it up for an Xbox or Switch 2 release within the year. If and when it does come to systems outside of PlayStation and PC, it’ll be the first of the series to do so, and its overall player count will likely rise all the more. All in all, it’s an exciting time for the Nioh series, and gamers on all platforms may be able to enjoy it.
- Released
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February 6, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Suggestive Themes, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
Source: SteamDB
