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Hades 2 may have just come out, but it looks as though thousands of people have also decided to revisit the first game. Hades, which released all the way back in 2018, has just seen the highest player count on Steam in its history. A peak of 40,332 was recorded by SteamDB, with more than 36,000 players enjoying the game at the time of writing.
This pales in comparison to the newer game, though, which has nearly three times the amount of players at the time of writing, and a peak of 103,567. These are ridiculous numbers for a game that’s still in Early Access, and then you add on the fact that the game has barely had any negative reviews or justified criticism. It’s mind-boggling, really.
Our Hades 2 Early Access review judges it in-depth, though you don’t need us to tell you that, the sheer player numbers on both games speaks for themselves.
Plenty of people are still playing the original for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s a fantastic, near-perfect game that’s infinitely replayable. This is just one of the many draws to the roguelike genre, which uses procedural generation to ensure that every run–playthrough–is unique.
The fact that it’s only in Early Access is also relevant, with many people unwilling to pay for an unfinished game. To label Hades 2 as such would be a disservice, though. It’s already polished to a tee, content-rich, and replayable. The only thing that’s really missing is the rest of the story, a few character models here and there, and a few characters.
Understandably so, players are turning to the original while the hype is so visceral, and they’re having a damn good time playing it.
