BG1 and 2 are some of the most beloved CRPG games ever made. On reddit, the Baldur’s Gate sub was still very active and I would guess people were continuing to do full play-throughs at least once a year (and that’s like 20 years after BG1 came out). I don’t know of many other games with that kind of following, so I’m not surprised at the interest in BG3. Plus, it looks like the devs really took their time and delivered a great game at launch, which doesn’t really seem to happen much these days.