Gaming IndustryMaketing Insights

Crimson Desert continues massive peak concurrent players - 2 weeks later

Crimson Desert continues massive peak concurrent players - 2 weeks later

Crimson Desert launched on March 19, 2026, to mixed Steam reviews and immediate controversy. Two weeks and a dozen patches later, Pearl Abyss has turned things around dramatically Steam rating now sits at "Very Positive," the worst launch frustrations have been fixed, and the community has largely come around. So is Crimson Desert worth buying in April 2026? We cover everything that has changed, what still needs work, and whether the open world of Pywel is finally ready to be your next obsession.

CA

Captainside

Apr 7, 2026 · 5 min read

Two Weeks In — Crimson Desert Is a Different Game to the One That Launched

When Crimson Desert launched on March 19, 2026, it arrived as one of the most anticipated open-world RPGs in years and immediately divided everyone who played it. Clunky controls ,very slow pace. A weak opening story. AI art found by Reddit users hidden in the game's environment. Mixed Steam reviews. Pearl Abyss's stock dropped. It was, by most measures, a messy launch.

Two weeks later, the picture looks remarkably different. Pearl Abyss has shipped over a dozen patches addressing the community's biggest frustrations at a pace industry observers are calling exceptional. Steam reviews have climbed from "Mixed" to "Very Positive," now sitting at 85% positive across nearly 39,000 reviews. The game sold 3 million copies in its first week. And the conversation has shifted from "is this broken?" to "is this a 2026 Game of the Year contender?"

Here is the full picture of where the game stands right now, what was fixed, what still needs work, and whether April 2026 is finally the right time to jump in.

What Is Crimson Desert?

Crimson Desert is a premium single-player open-world action RPG from Pearl Abyss — the Korean studio behind Black Desert Online. You play as Kliff, a mercenary warrior rebuilding his fractured faction after a brutal ambush, across the vast fantasy continent of Pywel. The game runs on Pearl Abyss's proprietary BlackSpace Engine and is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S for $69.99.

Why People Were So Hyped

Crimson Desert had been in development since 2019. What started as an MMO prequel to Black Desert Online was reimagined over years into a fully standalone single-player experience. The trailers showed a world of extraordinary visual fidelity infinite draw distances, dynamic seasons, dragons, mechs, massive boss fights, and a combat system built around total player expression. After multiple delays, expectations had built to enormous heights.

The Rocky Launch What Went Wrong in Week One

Controls and Tutorials

The single biggest complaint at launch was the control scheme. Crimson Desert throws a vast number of systems at the player in rapid succession, then maps them in ways that felt unintuitive on both keyboard and controller. The in-game tutorials were widely criticised as inadequate players frequently found themselves with browser tabs open to Reddit guides just to understand basic mechanics. Pearl Abyss's own PR director described learning the controls as "like riding a bike," which did not go down well with a community that felt left to figure things out alone.

The AI Art Controversy

Within 24 hours of launch, Reddit users began identifying what appeared to be AI-generated artwork in the game decorative paintings and environmental signs with hallmarks of machine generation. The discovery spread rapidly across social platforms and led to a wave of refunds. Pearl Abyss issued a formal apology on March 22, confirming that some 2D prop assets were created using AI tools during early development as placeholders and were unintentionally left in the final build. The studio launched a full asset audit and pledged to replace all affected content in upcoming patches — and has since done so.

PS5 Visual Quality and Performance

Console players, particularly on PS5, faced additional frustrations around visual quality and performance. Reddit threads with hundreds of comments criticised the base PS5 presentation compared to PC. Early patches have addressed the most significant issues, though some console-specific optimisation work is still ongoing.

The Patch-by-Patch Comeback — What Pearl Abyss Fixed

Pearl Abyss's post-launch support has drawn genuine praise from the gaming community — and even from industry observers who typically cover developer criticism. Over a dozen patches in two weeks, each directly addressing community feedback, is a pace many studios simply don't match.

Is Crimson Desert Worth Buying in April 2026?

Two weeks ago the honest answer was "wait." Today, the answer is closer to "yes but know what you're getting into."

Buy it if...

You love getting lost in a massive open world. You enjoy mastering a deep combat system over many hours. You can tolerate a story that moves the plot forward without truly captivating you. You want a developer that is actively listening — Pearl Abyss has earned real goodwill with its patch pace. If games like RDR2, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or Elden Ring are in your top tier, Crimson Desert belongs in that conversation for world design and combat depth, even if it doesn't match all of them on every front.

Hold off if...

A strong, character-driven story is your primary reason for playing an RPG. You play primarily on PS5 and want a fully polished console experience — it's better than launch but still has rough edges. The LOD and pop-in issues would bother you enough to break immersion. In all these cases, give it another month — the trajectory is clearly upward.

The bottom line: Crimson Desert is what happens when an ambitious studio builds something genuinely impressive, ships it too early, and then works harder than almost any developer in recent memory to make it right. The world of Pywel is extraordinary. The comeback is real. And right now, it is a significantly better game than the one that launched on March 19.