Steam has reached a staggering 17 million concurrent users as of today, nearly two months after it reached 16 million on Oct. 1. That’s a major milestone for the service, which has seen major growth in just the past few weeks alone.
The biggest gaming platform and digital storefront for PC has been chugging along in terms of concurrent users for some time, with a steady rise in numbers over the last few months.
Currently, the Steam Autumn Sale is live, which has undoubtedly attracted a decent number of users. Typically, deep discounts will attract users to the platform as games users have added to their wish list all year are finally on sale.
Unsurprisingly, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is a big attraction for concurrent users as well, staying atop the leaderboards over the last 30 days via SteamCharts as the top game on Steam. Its numbers are equally impressive as the game reached nearly 3 million players at its peak this month. It's important to note that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds just released this past March, yet it already comprises such a large chunk of Steam's users.
Dota 2 is in second place, with a peak player count of just over 1.2 million. Third place finds Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a meager 850k, if that helps to drive the point home how integral PUBG has been to Steam's continued concurrent user inflation.
What's more, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has reached its ridiculously high peak player numbers within 2017, where both Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive reached theirs in 2016. It seems the battle royale powerhouse can't be stopped. Chinese publisher Tencent recently acquired the rights to publish PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in the country via Steam. This will undoubtedly be a major buffer for the game's already sky-high numbers going forward.
Steam's Autumn Sale is still scheduled to go on until Tuesday, Nov. 28. Those extra days could mean suggest a rising concurrent player count, but we'll have to wait and see how things ebb and flow as the days wear on. No matter what happens, one thing’s for sure: it looks like Steam only has one way to go, and that’s up.
