Digimon Story Time Stranger reached 84 458 concurrent players on Steam at its October 5 peak, marking one of the largest launches for a JRPG on PC in 2025.[1][2]
Steam Performance and Records
The game posted 84 458 peak concurrent users on October 5, 2025, according to SteamDB. This eclipses the franchise’s previous high of 3 429 players for Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory by nearly 25-fold. Time Stranger also outperformed major JRPGs such as Final Fantasy XVI (27 508 peak) and Persona 5 Royal (35 474 peak), positioning it behind only Granblue Fantasy Relink (114 054 peak) and Metaphor ReFantazio (85 961 peak) among recent genre releases.[2]
User reviews on Steam rate the game as Very Positive based on over 1 200 reviews, praising its monster collection depth and combat mechanics.[3]
Console and Digital Store Success
Physical editions sold out in Japan within days of the October 3 release, prompting Bandai Namco to announce restocks and highlight strong prelaunch demand. On the PlayStation Store, Time Stranger ranked first in Singapore, second in Japan, third in South Korea, and sixth in the United States during its first week. The average PlayStation Store user rating stands at 4.78 stars from 4 250 ratings.[4][5][6]
Critical Reception
Time Stranger holds a Metacritic critic score of 78 for PlayStation 5 based on 48 reviews and a user score of 9.3 on Metacritic based on 112 reviews. IGN awarded 8/10, calling it “one of the best Digimon RPGs to date,” and commended its strategic turn-based combat and robust Digimon roster. GameGrin rated it 9.5/10, highlighting its accessibility for new players. Push Square gave a 6/10, noting that linear design choices limited its systems’ full potential.[7][8][9][10][11]
Game Details and Features
Developed by Media.Vision and published by Bandai Namco, Digimon Story Time Stranger is the seventh entry in the Story subseries and arrives eight years after its last installment. The game features over 450 Digimon, visible symbol encounters, and a time-travel narrative set between Tokyo and the Digital World. Players join the ADAMAS agency to investigate temporal anomalies affecting both worlds.[12][13][14]
Impact on the Genre
Time Stranger’s launch success demonstrates robust demand for monster-collecting RPGs beyond Nintendo platforms. Its performance on Steam fills a gap in the PC market and may influence future investments in similar titles. Sustained concurrent users—over 45 000 as of October 8—indicate lasting engagement beyond the initial release surge.[1]
