Total War: Warhammer III is having its biggest week on Steam in years. Creative Assembly’s Lords of the End Times expansion launched on September 24, and by Saturday the fantasy strategy game had climbed to nearly 100,000 players at once.
Steam’s own daily most-played chart logged a peak of 99,688 concurrent players for Saturday, September 26, which put the game at No. 28 on the platform, up from No. 67 the week before. SteamCharts’ hourly tracking lines up with that, catching 99,645 players around 10 AM CT on Saturday. When RCG checked Steam around 8:05 AM CT Sunday, 92,453 people were playing, and the count was rising through the morning.
That’s the highest monthly peak SteamCharts has recorded for the game since August 2022. It is still well short of the game’s launch in February 2022, when SteamCharts logged an all-time peak of 166,519. Before this week, the best month of 2026 topped out at 51,188 in January.
What’s in Lords of the End Times
Creative Assembly calls Lords of the End Times “the biggest DLC that we’ve ever released” in the series’ 10-year history. It adds four Legendary Lords, sold individually or as a discounted bundle:
- Nagash, the Supreme Lord of the Undead, who raises the Black Pyramid, commands nine Mortarchs and hunts the Books of Nagash. His army draws on Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts and Vampire Coast units, plus new additions like Morghasts, the Khemric Titan and the Coven Throne.
- Thanquol, the Grey Seer of Clan Scruten, who rides the Rat-Ogre Boneripper into battle and schemes through a new Masterplans system, with Skreech Verminking, Stormfiends and Verminlords at his side.
- Boris Todbringer, Elector Count of Middenland and champion of the wolf god Ulric, who builds up the Great Temple of Ulric and wants his nemesis, Khazrak One-Eye, dead. He brings Knights of the White Wolf and Teutogen Guard.
- The Glottkin, the Nurgle brothers Otto, Ethrac and the giant Ghurk, who spread Gardens of Corruption and bring along Legendary Heroes including Gutrot Spume and Bloab Rotspawned.
The launch also brought the free Update 9.0. It adds Neferata, the Vampire Queen, as a free Legendary Lord, fully reworks the Vampire Counts and Archaon the Everchosen, introduces new End Game Scenarios and updates victory conditions for the older Legendary Lords.
A new way in for new players
The expansion’s other big change may explain some of the crowd. In a series first, buying any of the four Lords of the End Times packs unlocks the Immortal Empires sandbox campaign, even for players who don’t own any of the Total War: Warhammer games. Creative Assembly’s new-player FAQ on Steam says the packs work as a base game for newcomers, and the studio’s weekly roundup pointed to the “amazing player count numbers” it has seen on Steam since launch.
The reception has been more divided on the store pages. The base game sits at Mostly Positive on Steam, with 72% of 105,319 reviews from Steam buyers recommending it. All four new packs showed Mixed ratings when RCG checked Sunday morning, and the Nagash pack has the most reviews at 505.
Hotfixes are rolling out
Creative Assembly released Hotfix 9.0.1 on Saturday. The fixes cover crashes and menu problems around Neferata’s Web of Power, a bug that could leave settlements untargetable after Underling armies disbanded or expired, and an issue where the Vermintide end-game scenario could complete itself without the final battle. The patch also stops the Black Pyramid end-game scenario from triggering while playing as Nagash.
Another hotfix is planned for next week. According to the studio, it’s looking at Thanquol’s narrative not triggering in multiplayer, which leaves him unable to unlock his underlings, as well as the Bone Giant being unavailable to Nagash owners who don’t have the Tomb Kings DLC. A balance-focused patch is also due in the next few weeks.
Total War: Warhammer III and the Lords of the End Times packs are available now on PC through Steam.
