Baldur’s Gate 3 Shoots Up Steam Top-Sellers List After Bear Sex Reveal

Last week’s Baldur’s Gate 3 showcase propelled the fantasy role-playing game up the Steam top-sellers list.

The Panel From Hell livestream revealed players can have sex with a Druid in bear form. Clips of the cutscene went viral on social media, and even caused TikTok to pull the showcase halfway through.

The Druid in question is called Halsin, an NPC and potential companion who can be rescued from a prison. Halsin can temporarily ‘wildshape’ into a bear, and if you play your cards right he does this during a romance cutscene. You can see it in the tweet video below:

So Baldur’s Gate 3 is a 10/10… this is the proper D&D experience. #baldursgate3 pic.twitter.com/HEi2PJRLLu

— Vaughan (@vaughandavies97) July 7, 2023

In an interview with IGN, Larian boss Swen Vincke called Baldur’s Gate 3’s bear sex scene “hilarious”. “Every single person who’s seen it is like, ‘oh my god.’ But it’s funny.”

It didn’t take long for Baldur’s Gate 3 to shoot up Steam’s top-sellers list, which is ranked by revenue. At the time of publication, the game had risen 21 places to become the fourth top-selling game on Steam, ahead of the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2, Hogwarts Legacy, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

In a new statement issued to IGN, Vincke did not single out the bear sex scene as the sole cause of Baldur’s Gate 3’s rapid climb. Instead he pointed to the success of the livestream overall.

“The Panel From Hell, and the impressions from journalists and creators who spent time hands-on with the game at our press event, have certainly helped sales,” Vincke said.

“It’s a game of depth and variety, which makes it hard to show everything we’re excited about, but the response has been fantastic and I think people are only now starting to realize exactly how deep BG3 is and how much there is to discover. We’re very grateful to everyone that tuned in, and everyone who attended, especially those who’ve already spent hundreds of hours in Early Access.

“To hear them be so enthusiastic about what we showed is incredibly rewarding for the team. We worked very hard on this game and are eager to share what we’ve been hoarding all this time.”

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a sprawling open-ended Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game from the makers of the Divinity: Original Sin series. Larian announced it had brought the PC version release date forward a month, from August 31 to August 3, in order to avoid a clash with the likes of Bethesda’s upcoming behemoth Starfield in early September. The PlayStation 5 version, meanwhile, is delayed slightly to September 6, and the Xbox Series X and S versions are without a release window (more on Baldur’s Gate 3’s Xbox hold-up here).
Speaking to IGN, Vincke said the developer is seeing a standard playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3 take 75 to 100 hours. However, players who want to “do everything” should expect to double that figure.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].