Ryu Ga Gotoku shot for the moon with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and their effort is paying off handsomely. The studio’s latest JRPG, which arrived 26 January as the eight mainline Yakuza game, has scored the series’ most successful launch on Steam, clocking a peak concurrent player count of 46,161 at time of writing.
This breaks the previous record set by spin-off Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name, which peaked at 13,737 during its launch weekend on 11 November 2023. By comparison, the seventh mainline entry, Yakuza: Like a Dragon peaked at 9,535 concurrent players — less than four times its successor.
These are the only comparable numbers for the Yakuza series, with all previous titles only launching on Steam after their initial releases on console. Adding them into the mix would skew the data and paint an inaccurate picture, although there’s a full table of launch stats for RGG Studio’s games (thanks, Mocha Joe) if you’d like to check it out anyway.
The popularity of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth doesn’t come as a surprise. In addition to generally favourable reviews, it has become the talk of the Internet, who remains enamoured with its idiosyncratic tone, quirky moments, and wacky side content, including an Animal Crossing-style island.
More notably, the sequel takes the series outside of Japan for the first time, with Ichiban Kasuga and Kiryu Kazuma serving as dual protagonists. It features the biggest map in the franchise to date and has tons of activities and mini-games, but Sega’s move to paywall the New Game Plus mode behind its more premium editions has been a point of contention.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Edwin Teo
