Age of Empires 4 was released to strong critical praise today and it's led to a strong player count on Steam which is certainly off to a great start.
Age of Empires 4 reached a concurrent player count of 54,239 people on Steam as of 10:36 AM PT on Thursday, according to SteamDB. That places it comfortably above Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition's all-time peak player count of 38,725 people.
That of course doesn't count the number of players playing it on Game Pass for PC or through the Microsoft Store, which Microsoft hasn't released info on as of yet.
Compared to other popular Steam titles and Age of Empire 4's 54,000 players are still pretty impressive. Relic's new strategy game is currently beating Rainbow Six Siege's current player count of 46,000 and Rocket League's 45,000. Next highest on SteamDB's player count chart is Korean MMO MIR4, Rust, Dead by Daylight, and Grand Theft Auto 5.
As of 10:45 AM PT, Age of Empires 4 is the 12th most-played game on Steam. Not bad for one of the best RTS franchises on PC, and one that only just released today. Microsoft certainly laid the groundwork by releasing "Definitive Edition" HD remasters of all three Age of Empires games over the past three years.
IGN reviewer Leana Hafer called Age of Empires 4 "an enjoyable RTS throwback that often plays it too safe, but excels when it doesn't," noting its expansive campaign and unique factions like the Mongols and Rus.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/map-clearing scrub for IGN.