Steam just broke its previous record of highest concurrent users by around 260,000. The online game store peaked at 18,801,944 players around 9:20 p.m. EST. The previous record held by Steam was 18,537,490, set on January 14, 2018. It is worth noting that the number of players in games was actually less. In January 2018, the highest record player count in a single game was 7 million, mostly due to the surprise hit Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. This time, the number of people in a single game was only 5.8 million. It is not known what the reason for this new high record, but it coincides with peak playtimes of top played Steam games.
.@Steam has broken its record for most concurrently online users that was held for two years. Previous record was 18,537,490 users. It's still increasing!
— SteamDB (@SteamDB) February 2, 2020
But there's about 1 million less players actually in-game (≈5.8mil vs ≈7mil two years ago).https://t.co/D6WDHbz0B4
The top five played games on Steam are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, Grand Theft Auto V, and Monster Hunter: World, and they together brought in around 2.5 million players.
There is a 13 million difference between actual players and online users, and it could be due to people leaving Steam on in the background while doing something else. Users are also making multiple IDs. Steam recently caused 1 billion users mark, and most of these accounts are bots used for Steam Market trading and scam schemes.
“Steam has broken its record for most concurrently online users that was held for two years. Previous record was 18,537,490 users. It’s still increasing!” SteamDB tweeted out yesterday “But there’s about 1 million less players actually in-game (≈5.8mil vs ≈7mil two years ago).”
Although not the main cause, this rise in players could have something to do with Steam making every Half-Life game free until their VR game, Half-Life: Alyx, launches. Steam users who have VR headsets connected to their PCs also saw a rise in population.
It seems like Steam is not in danger after Epic Store’s exclusive buying spree took away some of the most awaited games like Metro: Exodus and Borderlands 3. Companies that used to sell their product on their own platform are finally coming back to Steam as well. EA exclusively used Origin to sell its games, but Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was made available on Steam from Day One. Microsoft is also playing nice with Steam right now, especially with the slow rollout of Halo games on the platform.
