The most popular class in Baldur's Gate 3 so far is Paladin, and I don't think it's a coincidence that most players are also roleplaying as the good guys.
Developer Larian Studios released a handy infographic about the mammoth RPG's opening weekend earlier today. Among other things, it confirms the popularity of Paladin, which I speculate is due to the reasons I also chose the class for my custom character: it's durable, it's got healing, it can use a lot of different weapons, and it can fill many essential roles.
Last weekend, you played 1225 years of Baldur’s Gate 3. As we head into the second weekend of launch, we’ve compiled some tasty stats for you to sink your teeth into.Read more in Community Update #23 - Here’s To You: https://t.co/G2nJGeI2iE pic.twitter.com/wFe1AhqyKZAugust 11, 2023
Second place goes to Sorcerers, followed by Warlocks in third, then Rogues and Bards and Barbarians in an almost dead-heat tie for fourth. I'm surprised Rogue isn't in the top three, frankly, but it's also no shocker for spellcasters to rank so highly in a game with a magic system as engrossing as Baldur's Gate 3's – which is to say, as engrossing as D&D's. The least-picked class so far, by quite some distance, is Cleric. Sorry, Clerics.
Exposing the moral compass of its player base, Larian reports that "in terms of diplomacy, players veer on the side of good." It seems the opening encounter with the grove sanctuary was a key test here, with 65.1% of players saving the grove and 34.9% assaulting it.
It'll be interesting to see how this metric fluctuates, and how Larian measures it, as players get deeper into the game and encounter more difficult choices. I'm also curious if the PS5 population may have noticeably different preferences compared to PC players.
If you're wondering, as I was, the picks for custom character races are even more skewed. Half-Elves, Humans, and Elves command a sizable lead at first, second, and third respectively. Dragonborn, Tieflings, and Drow are in a lower but competitive bracket of their own at fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively. But the bottom five – Half-Orc, Dwarf, Gnome and especially Halflings and Githyanki – are apparently quite rare.
Taken as a whole, this data tells me that there are a lot of Elven Paladins running around helping people, and that warms my oath-keeping heart.
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