Summary
- GTA 5 now occupies two of the top spots on Steam’s concurrent player charts.
- This is potentially the first time a game has ever accomplished this feat.
- Enhanced Edition cuts down loading times, but some players are unhappy about other changes.
Grand Theft Auto 5 now holds the unique honour of holding two of the top ten positions on Steam’s concurrent player charts. The release of Grand Theft Auto 5’s enhanced edition a couple of days ago.
Those who already own Grand Theft Auto 5 were offered the enhanced edition as a free upgrade. This new version of the game is separate from the older version, similar to Skyrim (Oldrim) and Skyrim Special Edition. In GTA’s case, these two versions are called Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced and Grand Theft Auto 5 Legacy. GTA 5 Enhanced is currently the sixth most concurrently played game on Steam, holding a 24-hour peak of 157,463 players. Meanwhile, GTA 5 Legacy is tenth, with a 24-hour peak of 120,243 players. Not bad for a game that released twelve years ago.
Los Santos Still Thrives
It’s not possible to verify if this is the only time this phenomenon has occurred, but there aren’t many instances of a game having more than one distinct listing on Steam. While Skyrim comes to mind, Grand Theft Auto 5’s multiplayer component ensured hundreds of thousands of players were still playing the original version of the game before the enhanced edition was released, while Skyrim’s player base had already deteriorated by the time the Special Edition was released. MMOs like World of Warcraft and RuneScape which have multiple popular versions have surely achieved these simultaneous numbers, but those games have their own launchers.
Despite being a free upgrade for existing owners, some players are unhappy with the quality of GTA 5’s enhanced edition. This version of the game currently holds a ‘Mixed’ review score on Steam after 9,500 reviews. Fans have numerous complaints, like the inability to transfer Online characters if they’ve ever had hacked money, no controller aim assist, no text chat in Online and so on. While the first complaint may seem frivolous, there was no way to avoid a random player giving you hacked money if you played GTA Online on PC before Rockstar cracked down on cheat engines. I might not be able to migrate my character, but I’ll always have that pink Osiris.
Others are just pleased the game loads reasonably fast now. The long loading screens of Grand Theft Auto 5 are legendary, and after 12 years, we can finally load into the game in under 5 minutes. Let’s just hope this problem doesn’t carry over into Grand Theft Auto 6 when it releases later this year.
- Released
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September 17, 2013
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol