Pokemon-Inspired MMO Temtem Tops Steam Charts

Temtem only released on Steam Early Access on January 21, but that hasn't stopped it from shooting to the top of the Steam charts. A massively multiplayer take on Pokemon sounds like an excuse to print money, and while Temtem is only inspired by Pikachu and co., developer Crema is on to an early winner.

Even a few days later, Temtem is still the number one selling game on Steam, while its peak concurrent players currently sits at a healthy 33,328 for today. That's still far off Counter Strike: Global Offensive's 739,564 concurrent players, but for a completely new property in Early Access, it's pretty impressive.

Its popularity has had some ill side effects, however. Long queues to access the game's servers started forming not long after release, with spots freeing up mainly due to game freezes and unintended disconnects. Crema has been working tirelessly to shore up Temtem in the time since, and the game seems to be running much more smoothly now after a few patches and hotfixes have gone live, but there are still more issues to sort out.

Temtem certainly wears its Pokemon influence on its sleeve, but it also twists the familiar formula in interesting ways--not least because it's an MMO. As of right now, you can explore three islands of Temtem's Airborne Archipelago, with 76 Temtem's to catch and a 20-hour campaign to play through. The game will gradually expand as the month's roll by, which will coincide with a price rise that rewards those who support the game early.

If you fancy being one of the early adopters, Temtem is available on Steam now. You can also grab it at a discount from other online storefronts.