Armored Core 6 smashes Souls to become FromSoftware’s second biggest PC launch

Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon Assault made its way into the hands of gamers around the world on August 25th. The game had a great opening weekend on PC, besting every Souls title and Sekiro in peak concurrent player count.

Armored Core 6’s brand of fast-paced mech action is a bit of a departure from the dark fantasy RPGs FromSoftware has promoted to gamers over the past decade. However, the satisfying combat, the tough but fair difficulty, and the sheer joy of overcoming its many challenges all carry the DNA that fans of the developer have come to love.

It’s already been described as one of FromSoftware’s toughest titles to date as many gamers have been alienated by Armored Core 6’s Learning Director. Gamers have been smashing consoles in frustration with the game’s steep learning curve.

Despite this, Armored Core 6 had 156,171 concurrent players in its opening weekend alone according to Steam database. Although it wasn’t able to beat the huge success of Elden Ring, it beat out every other FromSoft release on PC to take second place in the developer stack catalog.

Shattering the success of the Armored Core 6

Armored Core 6 has surpassed the highest concurrent player count of other recent FromSoftware titles on PC such as Sekiro (125,315) and Dark Souls 3 (129,975). It’s possible that the Elden Ring’s success had something to do with this.

The Elden Ring is currently the sixth most popular title on Steam of all time as measured by the number of concurrent players. The iconic game accounted for a whopping 953,426 players at its all-time peak, and introduced the wider gaming community to FromSoftware’s design philosophy.

Armored Core 6 is the first title from the developer since the Elden Ring to bring a lot of attention to the game. If there’s anything to consider in the review results, FromSoft has certainly proven to be more than a one-trick pony.

The fan community dedicated to previous Armored Core titles shouldn’t be discounted from the success of the latest release either. Even though Fires of Rubicon is the sixth installment in the series, longtime gamers of the series have been waiting for over a decade to get their hands on a new armor core and it definitely showed up in this game.

Bandai Namco

Armored Core 6’s PVP offerings can extend the life cycle of a game, which means that a new player rush may occur.

Not all fans of the series are satisfied with the latest Armored Core, of course. Some fans of the series have long accused the developer of lying about the game’s similarity to the “Soulsborne” games in the lead-up to release, going so far as to call it “Armored Souls.”

Despite this, a huge number of gamers are huge fans of Armored Core 6 and the game’s unparalleled range of customization. Players have created and shared their own bizarre mechs inspired by gaming icons like Minecraft Creeper, Pepsi Man, and more.

For more on Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon, see our list of guides.
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