THE CRUNCH
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve has delivered the series' best PC launch by a wide margin. Released on October 2, the game peaked at over 52,000 concurrent Steam players a day later, according to SteamDB, nearly four times the 13,758 that Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown managed in 2019. It also apparently topped Steam's global top sellers chart.
The comparison with earlier entries is stark: Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown peaked at 13,758 concurrent players in 2019, while Assault Horizon managed only 3,795. The new game also apparently topped Steam's global top sellers chart, no small feat for a fairly niche series that Bandai Namco revived more than seven years after the last mainline entry.
Steam reviews are less emphatic than the player counts. The game sits at around 78% positive, a "Mostly Positive" rating, with praise for the dogfights, mission variety, campaign and soundtrack. The main complaints concern performance, with frame rates below expectations, and opinions on multiplayer are mixed.
One quirk worth knowing: the pre-order bonus, Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, is treated as DLC and needs Wings of Theve installed to run, a consequence of licensing restrictions that caught some buyers out.
Caveats apply to the record itself. Bandai Namco has not shared sales figures, and Steam is only one of three platforms, so the official size of the launch remains unknown.