Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is out. That’s technically true, in that you can play the action game right now. The official release isn’t until September 9, but like many of today’s biggest games, paying more upfront unlocks the game a few days early for you.

In this case, purchasing the gold or ultra editions of Space Marine 2 is what lets you play early, and thousands of players have done so.

The result of this excitement (and all the money spent on the expensive editions) is that it caused Space Marine 2 to shoot up Steam’s most played charts. The game recently jumped to the top of the sales charts on Valve’s platform (where it remains in the lead), so there was really little chance this launch wasn’t going to be big.

Just as servers went live over 12 hours ago, Space Marine 2 peaked at 134,302 concurrent players on Steam, comfortably landing it in Steam’s top ten most played games. At the time of this writing, over 75,000 players are in-game. Given the nature of this release, there’s every chance the positive word of mouth will push these numbers even higher over the weekend, to say nothing of the boost they’re going to get once the game officially launches on Tuesday.

A cursory look at Space Marine 2’s Steam reviews – currently sitting at Mostly Positive – reveals no major signs of server troubles. While an internet connection is not required to play the game, much of its content – including the campaign – is designed for co-op play. There’s also the PvE mode, Operations, as well as competitive multiplayer to jump into after wrapping up the main story.

Warhammer fans, in particular, are quite happy with the way the lore and fiction of the series are represented in the game. Developer Saber Interactive went to great lengths to make sure the game is as accurate and respectful to the source material as possible.

Space Marine 2 has also impressed most critics, with our very own Connor Makar awarding it four starts in the VG247 review, calling it one of the most faithful adaptations of Warhammer ever. It appears everyone is happy, then, which is really great to see considering this is also the same week a game is going to get shutdown less than a fortnight after its release.

If you’re just joining the ranks of the Astartes yourself, check out our guides for the best Bolt Rifle perks, and best Heavy Bolt Rifle perks.