Key Highlights:
- A recently released JRPG on Steam has managed to cross over 80,000 concurrent players.
- This game is Digimon Story: Time Stranger, a monster collecting game.
- The game is perhaps the most the series has been popular, making it a real threat to Nintendo’s Pokemon.
2025 has been a really competitive year for video games, with multiple blockbuster releases standing as amazing Game of The Year contenders. A recently released JRPG has managed to rise up to a record breaking 80,000 concurrent players on Steam, just shy of Final Fantasy 14’s 95,150.
The title in question is Digimon Story: Time Stranger, and has turned out to be a surprise hit in what was a franchise that has typically remained overshadowed by the likes of Final Fantasy, Persona and of course, Pokemon.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger Sets a New Record for the Franchise on Steam
Taking a look at recent SteamDB charts, it would appear that the newly released Digimon Story: Time Stranger has over 84,000 players on Steam concurrently. This is quite the impressive number, especially when compared to its competition.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger is far from the only JRPG in existence, and faces fierce competition from the likes of Final Fantasy, Persona, and the rather excellent Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
However, Digimon Story: Time Stranger has managed to trump all of these titles in terms of player count on Steam, and is shaping up to be quite the treat for fans of what used to be an underrated franchise.
It has even managed to beat the record set by the previous Digimon game (Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory), which peaked at only 3,429 players concurrently.
Pokemon Might Have Some Stiff Competition
While Pokemon and Digimon have never directly competed against each other (mostly on account of Pokemon being the far more popular series), things might change now.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger has been a massive commercial success, and is taking the series to new heights. On the other hand, the Pokemon franchise has been stagnating as of late, with barely any meaningful improvements to speak of.
Digimon also features a lot more darker themes, and (in my opinion) a much superior narrative and core gameplay loop that makes it a better game overall.
Also Read: Metaphor ReFantazio Livestream Sparks Rumors of a Definitive Version Release
That being said, prior Digimon titles have been quite underwhelming, and have rightfully received their fair share of criticism. Time Stranger aims to change all that.
The Pokemon franchise hasn’t exactly faced any major competition over the past few years, and whatever copycats that might have spawned have been aggressively lawsuit-ed out of relevance by Nintendo. This isn’t the case with Digimon, which is a relatively old IP.
Digimon’s core gameplay loop of monster collection, evolution, and turn based gameplay is something that comes close to Pokemon’s own formula, but has enough nuanced differences that make it stand out on its own.
Digimon Has Always Been the Underdog
Digimon has always been criminally underrated. The series has always shared a familiar premise to that of Pokemon, in the essence that it has your usual monster collecting elements.
Unfortunately, despite its much cooler designs and in-depth lore, it always lost to Pokemon in terms of overall popularity. This is more true in the case of its games, which always felt a step behind Pokemon.
The series was released back in 1997, and it still has a small but passionate audience. Digimon has always been, and will be a niche franchise. However, things might change with the recently released Digimon Story: Time Stranger, which is perhaps the series’ best chance at going mainstream.
