Dragon Age: The Veilguard Launch Day Numbers Surpass BioWare Record But Falls Woefully Short of Competitors

The launch for BioWare’s anticipated Dragon Age: The Veilguard has finally arrived and has set the internet aflame. Just not the way BioWare and Electronic Arts might have expected it to. If you were to look at mainstream websites and journalists, they paint a glorious “return to form” for BioWare and that Veilguard is now the best-selling singleplayer game for EA and BioWare on Steam. On the other hand, content creators and social media personalities will say that it is a flop. Judging by the initial launch numbers, Dragon Age: The Veilguard certainly broke records for EA and BioWare for a singleplayer game, but, as of now, appears to be falling woefully short of expectations according to the numbers we see on Steam.

Upon its release, Dragon Age: The Veilguard quickly charted to be the #1 selling game on the Steam platform. Within the first five hours it peaked at 70,414 concurrent players and briefly cracked the Top 10 Most Played at #9. What is interesting to note is the time that the player count peaked was prime time for the East Coast in the United States, which failed to increase as the prime time for the West Coast came and went. Instead, it experienced an ever-decreasing drop in the player count. 

While some leeway can be given for the fact that Veilguard was released on a Thursday and, more importantly, on Halloween, the drop off is still disconcerting. 

On the surface those statistics sound impressive and mainstream journalists were quick to write their articles giving it a positive spin. But even though Veilguard is the best-selling singleplayer game on Steam for both BioWare and EA. What mainstream game outlets also conveniently ignore is that Veilguard is the first BioWare title to be released on Steam simultaneously, with other platform,  making the claim a hollow one. A claim that doesn’t mean much when stacked up against its competitors. In fact, when compared to other games in the genre, it falls woefully short. 

So what games would be considered competitors to Dragon Age: The Veilguard? Well, considering that this is an action-roleplaying game, makes it hard to properly ascertain what would be its competitors since BioWare took the franchise from being a roleplaying game with Dragon Age: Origins to an action-roleplaying game with the following installments. 

EA and BioWare wanted a Mass Effect or God of War-style combat system for Veilgaurd while retaining the RPG elements that BioWare is known for. So one must compare it to the two differing genres as a result. Games such as The Witcher 3 which peaked at 103,329 concurrent players on Steam or Hogwart’s Legacy which capped out at 879,308. Both of these titles are action-RPGs. Or, for roleplaying games, there is Baldur’s Gate 3 (875,343), Metaphor: ReFantazio (85,961), and Pillars of Eternity (41,906). 

With the exception of the last two examples, Veilguard falls woefully short of the competition. For the ones which it didn’t, Metaphor: ReFantazio sold one million units on launch day, making it the fastest-selling title for Atlus, while Pillars of Eternity is a game that was released nine years ago. 

So where does this leave Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

While we still have to wait and see how Veilguard performs on opening weekend, the launch is off to a rocky start for a number of reasons. It doesn’t matter that BioWare’s latest game has broken its previous records because, in the end, it could only outperform a game that was released nine years ago on its launch day. It’s 2024 now, where the video game market is larger than ever and so is the player base. A player base that, if tapped into, can launch and maintain video game properties. 

However, with concern to Veilguard, there isn’t that kind of hype for it. By the middle of October, GameStop pre orders for Vailguard were, allegedly, just under 2,000 across console platforms according to a retail insider speaking to @StutterringCraig. Veilguard’s reveal trailer was overwhelmingly ratio’d as the game was shown to be a massive departure from the Dragon Age franchise. 

Not great for a game that was being developed for nine years. 

That brings up a major problem. Dragon Age: The Veilguard took nine years to develop, which means that the budget has to be significant. So sales expectations have to be pretty high to just break even. To put it in contrast, let’s look at another EA game called SimCity 2013 (we recommended gamers boycott SimCity 2013). While nowhere near the same genre, SimCity 2013 took four years to develop and sold 1.1 million copies during launch week. But the game was a flop which led to its developer, Maxis, shutting down. 

Will Dragon Age: The Veilguard sell 1 million units during its launch week? Prior to its release, that answer would have been a definitive “Yes.” However, it is an uncertain possibility. But even then, it is highly doubtful that this milestone will satisfy EA or build confidence in the brand’s future. Let’s not forget that Mass Effect Andromeda wasn’t a big success and Anthem was an unmitigated flop for BioWare. 

Dragon Age: The Veilguard could be the third and final straw that breaks BioWare’s back because of a number of reasons we pointed to in our editorial about Boycotting Dragon Age: The Veilguard. To put it succinctly, Veilguard makes three cardinal mistakes that has led to other games failing and their developers closing up shop – betrayal of expectations and the loss of identity in the pursuit of commercialization. A pursuit that created a game that doesn’t look or feel like Dragon Age and begs the question, “Who was Veilguard developed for?” Who wanted a Dragon Age game without spiders, more focus on LGTBTQ issues, a curated character creation screen that doesn’t allow for curvaceous women but has top surgery scars, and a more cartoony, Funko Pop look?

Like so many other EA developers that have fallen along the way, BioWare is most likely the next one if Veilguard can’t hit whatever sales target EA has declared. A shame, really, given that BioWare could have produced its own Baldur’s Gate-like successful Dragon Age game if the franchise had stayed true to its Origins. Instead, we got Veilguard, a game that is confused and having its own identity crisis that, at least for now, is not appealing to gamers.

It is expected to see Dragon Age: The Veilguard surpass its launch day numbers during the launch weekend. But if it doesn’t, that could spell doom for the Dragon Age franchise and, potentially BioWare.

Do you think Veilguard will surpass 70,000 concurrent players over its opening weekend?

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