Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 opens to 2 million players

Image via Saber Interactive/Focus Entertainment.

Saber Interactive’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II has opened to two million players a day after its official release.

The “incredible milestone” spans the game’s release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Premium editions of the game offered four-day Early Access ahead of its standard launch.

At time of writing, this does not appear to be indicative of the shooter’s sales.

How did Space Marine II get here?Warhammer games release at a steady cadence, often between two-four titles per year. Space Marine II (a sequel to Relic’s 2011 cult classic) marks the second Warhammer title to launch in 2024, and is one of Focus’ big releases for the year.

IGN also spotted that on Steam, Space Marine II is taking off quite well. It opened to 225,690 concurrent players, making it the platform’s most-played Warhammer title (40K or otherwise) ahead of Total War: Warhammer 3’s peak of 166,754 players.

While Saber and Focus didn’t break down specifics of Space Marine II’s player count, the Early Access launch likely played a hand in things.

Triple-A games have used Early Access as a pre-order incentive for years, and publishers are typically quiet on how it affects sales. EA is an exception, since it had no problem touting EA Sports College Football 25’s 2.2 million Early Access players in July.

About the Author

Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com

A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don’t ask him about how much gum he’s had, because the answer will be more than he’s willing to admit.