Total War: Three Kingdoms was the most pre-ordered Total War game ever before today’s launch. And those numbers are being confirmed by the concurrent player count. Earlier this morning, 162,592 players were fighting and scheming their way across ancient China. That number has fallen off to around 112,000 right now but should see another bump towards 162,000 as folks get off work/school later this afternoon.
More good news for Creative Assembly is the Three Kingdoms is currently sitting at a Very Positive review score on Steam. It’s a big deal for a franchise that has been known to have issues at launch before.
The concurrent player count hit earlier sets a new record for the Total War franchise. Here’s how the new number stacks up against the last few games.
Total War: Warhammer 2 – 72,112
Total War: Warhammer – 111,909
Total War: Attila – 26,237
Total War: Three Kingdoms even managed to pass Civilization VI’s all-time peak of 162,314.
Creative Assembly is already working on new content with a dedicated DLC team. This team has already been working for a few months on the first piece of post-launch content the developer is dubbing “Chapter Packs.” I’ll let Creative Assembly’s James High take it from here:
“We’ll be taking notable chapters from Romance and creating new start positions that reflect their events. Adding a cast of new and familiar characters, features and objectives each time, that exemplify that chapter and the thrilling stories it tells.
While you’ll find a selection of new heroes and villains populating each new chapter, you’ll also see some familiar faces from the main game. However, they’ll be at a different point in their life, and are likely to have a very different set of needs and desires at this stage in their journey.
In terms of ‘size’ of content, you can expect a Chapter Pack to be somewhere between a Culture Pack and a Campaign Pack. There will be a serious clutch of new playable factions and a raft of new mechanics to get to grips with in each, while you’ll be playing across all of China.”
Modding is also a big deal for the Total War community, and the devs plan to release the tools “shortly after launch.” I’m sure it won’t be long until Total War: Three Kingdoms turns into Total War: Seven Kingdoms.