Ace Combat 8 Tops Steam Chart and Sets Series Concurrent Player Record

Following three days of early access, Ace Combat 8 is now available to standard edition owners.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launched on October 2 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. After a three-day early access period for Deluxe Edition owners, the game became available to standard version buyers and set a franchise record for peak concurrent players on Steam.

According to SteamDB, 37,214 people played the new installment simultaneously. By comparison, the peak result for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown was 13,758 players, meaning the new title surpassed it by approximately 2.7 times. By Friday morning, Ace Combat 8 also claimed the top spot on the global Steam sales chart by revenue, outpacing AION 2 and Gears of War: E-Day.

Buyers have received the game largely positively, with about 74% of more than 5,000 reviews being positive. Players praise the aerial combat, campaign, and music, but complain about performance and technical issues. Easy Anti-Cheat drew separate criticism, as Linux and SteamOS users report that they can enter online lobbies but encounter an error when launching a mission.

The peak concurrent player count may still change, as the full release has only just begun and Friday evening and the first weekend following the game’s launch are still ahead.