It's no secret that Steam is the go-to platform for PC gaming, having become an absolute juggernaut in the market since its initial debut back in 2001. On Sunday, that juggernaut reset its all-time 24-hour peak online players concurrent, smashing its own record it set in August that was previously set in 2023.

According to the data housed at SteamDB, a website dedicated to tracking all things Steam related, including player concurrents and sales charts, the new all-time peak for Steam is a whopping 38.3 million gamers.

Previously, Steam amassed 33 million players in January 2023, then eclipsed 36 million in March of this year before topping 37 million in August. In other words, in nearly one year's time, Steam has grown by an additional five million players, no small number for the booming PC market.

Just What Was Everyone Playing?
Of course, numbers are just numbers, and what everyone wants to know is just exactly what gamers were playing. Naturally, Counter-Strike 2 led the way on Steam with a 24-hour concurrent of nearly 1.5 million players.

Behind the Counter-Strike train was a neck-and-neck battle between PUBG and Dota 2, with both totaling nearly 800,000 gamers each. After that, it's a mish-mash of games ranging from the ever popular Grand Theft Auto V to the seminal Baldur's Gate 3.

Of particular note, God of War Ragnarök enjoyed a 35,615 peak. That isn't incredibly bad for a game that had launched with "Mixed" reviews over the PlayStation Network account requirements that seemingly have players extremely upset.

It stands to reason that Steam will likely reset its own mark before the end of the year, particularly as more hotly anticipated games make their way onto the market. Forty million peak concurrent players seems like a safe bet before 2024 comes to a close.



Posted: Sep 27, 2024 1:58 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/steam-breaks-all-time-player-concurrent-record-with-383-million-players-online-pc-gaming/