Steam continues to pull in millions of gamers, firming up its position as the premier digital storefront on PC. Hours ago, the platform hit a new all-time high player count record, with 38,367,277 users being active on the platform concurrently. Steam’s popularity is increasing exponentially – in 2020, peaks were sitting at around 18 million users.
That’s a Lot of Gaming
Out of those 38 million users, around 12 million were actively playing a game when the new record was secured. In recent weeks, a few titles have contributed massively to this growth on the platform.
Firstly, you’ve got Counter-Strike 2, which remains Valve’s most-played game ever, sitting with a 24-hour peak of 1,459,492 players. Behind that ranks games like PUBG (787,340 peak), Dota 2 (731,193 peak), Black Myth: Wukong (533,128 peak), and Naraka: Bladepoint (298,908 peak).
In fifth place rests ‘Banana’, the strange, money-printing game that stormed up the charts earlier this year when users found they could potentially make hundreds of dollars simply by clicking a banana. It has been permeated by bot activity so that the active player count is inflated.
For shame.
Elsewhere, more games than ever are being played on Steam – and more are being released.
By way of a comparison, I’ll point out that in 2020, 9,699 gamers were released on Steam. In 2024, that number hit 14,422, another all-time high for the platform. In 2006 – which is as far back as records go – just 71 games were released on Steam. From the single-dev indie games to the AAA titles, everything is finding a home on Steam.
In January 2024, it was estimated that more than 73,000 unique games were available on Steam, and that’s without mentioning the scores of DLC, expansions, and additional content. It is single-handedly holding up the bulk of the PC-based gaming market on its shoulders, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it surpasses 40 million concurrent users very soon.
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