Bandai Namco’s newly released Digimon Story: Time Stranger has made an explosive entrance on Steam, drawing more than 70,000 players within its first 24 hours. The role-playing game peaked at 70,964 concurrent users shortly after release, making it one of the most successful launches for a Japanese role-playing game on the platform. The only recent title to exceed this performance was Atlus’ Metaphor ReFantazio, which opened to over 85,000 players last year.
The strong debut places Time Stranger ahead of several major JRPG franchises. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth peaked at 40,564 concurrent players earlier this year, while Persona 3 Reload reached 45,002. Other high-profile entries such as Tales of Arise (60,274) and Persona 5 Royal (35,474) were also outpaced by Bandai Namco’s latest Digimon release. Even the recent Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles, which launched just days ago, peaked at 21,010 concurrent players, a fraction of what Time Stranger achieved.
The game’s rapid rise in popularity comes on the heels of another milestone. Earlier this week, Digimon Story: Time Stranger sold out across multiple Japanese retailers, with Bandai Namco issuing an apology and urging fans to consider the digital version while restocks are arranged. The publisher confirmed it would continue to ship out new stock to meet demand.
Developed by Media.Vision, Time Stranger marks the seventh entry in the long-running Digimon Story subseries and the first new installment since 2017’s Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory. It was released worldwide on October 3, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows. With both physical and digital editions performing strongly, the game appears to be establishing itself as one of Bandai Namco’s most significant RPG launches in recent years.
