Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord today launched on Steam's Early Access but you'd be forgiven for thinking it's been there for days, at least judging by the numbers, which show TaleWorlds Entertainment's game as the third most played game.

Fans of strategy games should be familiar with the Mount & Blade series, perhaps most notably from the exquisite stand-alone expansion Warband. Warband launched back in 2010 but while it's still great fun to play, it was about time for a proper refresh.

And boy did TaleWorlds deliver with Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord, and even though we'll refrain from actual reviewing due to our own review pending, the initial rush of players clearly shows that the excitement is high.

In fact, it took only 6 hours for Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord to climb Steam's most-played chart to fifth place. It managed to beat the likes of Rainbow Six Siege and Monster Hunter: World, which is quite the feat, but was still behind giants like CS:GO, Dota 2 and PUBG.

Thankfully, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord didn't stop there and one of TaleWorld Entertainment's latest tweets contains a screenshot of Steam's most-played games proving it. It reads, "Third game most played in the world. Just... thank you, warriors of Calradia."

As you can see for yourself, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord has managed to beat PUBG, which is quite an achievement for any game. When talking about strategy games - doubly so.

Our reviewing machinery is running full-throttle on Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord and we'll be delivering our take on the long-awaited strategy as soon as humanly possible. That said, the vastness and complexity of the game means we will be taking our time to get it right, because there's a lot of ground to cover here.