Baldur's Gate 3 celebrated its third anniversary with developer Larian Studios releasing a new round of player statistics on social media, continuing what has become an annual tradition. The studio shared the numbers via a Bluesky thread, covering everything from mod usage to in-game deaths to players' odd display choices.
On the modding front, Larian revealed that Baldur's Gate 3 has now seen 500 million mod downloads, up from 265 million the previous year, with 13,000 unique mods uploaded across platforms. The studio also shared which story NPCs died the most: Zevlor, the Act 1 tiefling refugee leader, topped the list with 12.31 million deaths, followed by wizard apprentice Rolan at 8.62 million, Isobel at 7.2 million, Volo at 4.62 million, and bard Alfira at 2.62 million.
The Alfira statistic drew particular attention across outlets. Larian noted that 'more non-Dark Urge players have managed to murder Alfira than Dark Urge players.' Alfira's death is scripted as a compulsory early moment for anyone playing the Dark Urge origin, tied to the character's storyline involving the god Bhaal, making it notable that regular players killed her more often by choice. Larian also broke down other Dark Urge kill rates: Isobel died in 62% of Durge runs, Zevlor in 48%, Wulbren in 32%, and Popper in 30%, while Alfira died in 48% of Durge playthroughs specifically.
Save habits were also put under the microscope. Larian reported that a handful of players made over 560 manual saves in a single playthrough, while an even smaller group exceeded 1,400 quicksaves, prompting the studio to ask, 'You doing okay there?' Weapon-use stats included the rarely-wielded Poo-Scraper, used four times in Act 3 combat, and the rock-like Nut-Buster, deployed twice in the Creche area. Other figures noted that over 30,000 players have faced the Netherbrain while drunk, and fewer than 1% of players managed to collect all 180,000 gold in a single playthrough.
Perhaps the most puzzling data point involved display settings: 9,008 players ran the game in a 9:16 portrait aspect ratio, while 114 played in a perfect 1:1 square ratio. Commentators speculated about possible reasons, ranging from portrait-oriented secondary monitors to old CRT-style setups or accidental launches on the wrong screen, though none of the outlets offered a confirmed explanation from Larian itself. The reaction across coverage was largely amused disbelief, with writers jokingly suggesting the portrait-mode players and prolific Alfira-killers alike deserved some kind of penalty for their choices.