Aniimo has crossed 100,000 concurrent players on Steam shortly after launch, giving Pawprint Studio’s free-to-play creature-catching RPG a strong opening on Valve’s platform. SteamDB recorded a peak of 101,717 simultaneous players on September 16, while Steam’s own live statistics also showed the game reaching the same figure. Early user reception is considerably less clear, however, with its Steam rating sitting around the halfway-positive mark.
Steam currently categorizes Aniimo’s reviews as Mixed. At the time of checking, 48% of 119 user reviews were positive, while SteamDB’s snapshot around the 101,717-player milestone placed the rating slightly above 50%. The difference reflects how quickly review percentages can shift during a game’s first hours, particularly when the overall number of submitted reviews is still relatively small.
The player count is nevertheless a substantial launch result. Aniimo appeared among Steam’s most-played games as its concurrent audience passed six figures, putting it alongside established multiplayer releases during the opening period. Recent launches have shown how quickly large Steam audiences can form around new online games, with WARDOGS also combining a huge Steam launch with rough early reviews earlier this month.
Aniimo officially launched worldwide on PC and consoles on September 16, although its American servers opened during the evening of September 15 because of regional time differences. The game is available as a free-to-play release on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox, with its mobile version scheduled for September 23. Pawprint Studio had also opened pre-loading ahead of release to reduce the amount of waiting once servers went live.
The game is an open-world creature-catching RPG set across the continent of Idyll. Players explore different environments, capture creatures called Aniimo and build teams around their abilities, while environmental conditions, weather and time of day can influence which creatures appear. Many Aniimo can also evolve, while the game includes PvE activities, competitive play and online cooperative features.
One of Aniimo’s more unusual systems is Twining, which allows the player character to combine with an Aniimo and directly use its abilities while exploring or fighting. Pawprint Studio has positioned that mechanic as a major difference from more traditional monster-collecting games, where creatures normally battle independently from the player. The broader progression structure also includes catching, exploration, open-world activities and multiplayer competition.
Interest in the game was already substantial before release. Aniimo’s official website recorded more than 30 million global pre-registrations during its launch campaign, unlocking several milestone rewards for players. The studio also ran multiple tests before launch and acknowledged that feedback from those sessions had led to changes across catching mechanics, progression, character presentation and multiplayer systems.
Pawprint Studio specifically said ahead of launch that it had received both positive feedback and significant criticism during testing. Among the changes made for the release build were revisions to Legendary Aniimo encounters, increased spawn rates for high-Potential creatures, improved quest guidance and additional AI support for certain battle activities. The developer also said it would continue refining PvP modes after launch.
The early Steam review score suggests the launch version is still dividing players despite attracting a large audience. Because Aniimo has only just released and Steam currently has relatively few reviews compared with its concurrent player count, the rating could move substantially as more players spend time with the game and submit feedback. The current percentage should therefore be treated as an early snapshot rather than an established long-term consensus.
Aniimo’s launch is also broader than Steam alone. The title is available through its standalone PC launcher as well as consoles, meaning the 101,717 Steam peak represents only one part of its total active audience. Cross-platform progression is supported within the same regional server, although progress on different regional servers remains separate.
For now, Aniimo has achieved a notable six-figure Steam launch while starting with a Mixed reception from its earliest reviewers. Whether that rating improves as the initial server rush settles and more players progress through Idyll will become clearer over the coming days, but the first concurrency numbers show Pawprint Studio has successfully drawn a sizable audience to its new creature-catching RPG.
