2023 was so terrible, it compelled the world to spend a collective 3 million days creating fantasy characters in 'Baldur's Gate 3'

• People have spent 8,196 years making video game characters in "Baldur's Gate 3," its developer said.
• That's a collective 3 million days since the game launched in August.

War, George Santos, and AI doomsday talk — there's a lot for the human mind to escape from this year.

And it turns out millions of people have been doing so through the video game "Baldur's Gate 3," spending a collective eight millennia crafting fantasy characters, according to new statistics from developer Larian Studios.

A total 1.3 million players have completed the acclaimed role-playing title since its release in August, Larian Studios said on Tuesday evening.

Gamers spent a total 8,196 years, or 2.99 million days, in the character creation menu, which has to be completed before a person even starts playing the game, per Larian Studios.

Completing the game is another matter, and should take the average player 75 to 100 hours, Larian Studios previously estimated.

There's incentive for players to play through the game multiple times as well — "Baldur's Gate 3" has 17,000 possible ending variations.

In all, players have sunk a total 51,662 years, or 18.8 million days, into the game, Larian Studios said.

The developer revealed to Bloomberg in August that 2.5 million people bought "Baldur's Gate 3" while it was in early access for around three years.

But Larian Studios has been mum about official sales figures since the game's launch this year.

Fans did notice a social media post by the Belgian Embassy on August 17 congratulating the Belgian game developer for 5.2 million copies sold. The post was uploaded on Chinese social site Weibo, of all places.

Meanwhile, websites that track game ownership on the PC store platform Steam have greatly varying estimates for "Baldur's Gate 3" sales, ranging between 5.46 million and 27.07 million copies.

"Baldur's Gate 3" was developed with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing system, which is licensed by Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast.

The video game saw Hasbro's quarterly revenues from digital games surge more than 100%, bringing revenue from its Wizards of the Coast arm up by 40%, per the company's October report.