Steam just set a record for the highest player count

After the boom in console gaming, PC gaming is now having quite the resurgence. The first dominant era for PC gaming was in the 90s when games like Quake and DOOM were wildly popular. The era for PC gaming seems to be coming back, with components getting cheaper and also with the rise of esports, which is dominated by PC games. This is also reflected by the data that shows Steam’s growing user base. And with the growing number of users, Steam today set a new record for the highest player count. 

Steam Database today announced on Twitter that the peak player count hit 18,801, 944 players today. The previous record was in 2018 when the peak player count was 18, 537, 490. But the Tweet also did mention that the number of people actually playing games was around 5.8 million as compared to 7 million in 2018. That is a difference of 1.2 million. 

.@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!

But there's about 1 million less players actually in-game (≈5.8mil vs ≈7mil two years ago).https://t.co/D6WDHbz0B4

— Steam Database (@SteamDB) February 2, 2020

The previous record was due to PUBG, which was all the rage back then. This time though, it is all guesswork, but it could be attributed to a couple of factors. CS:GO has hit the highest player count it has ever seen, surpassing Dota 2. Also, Steam has expanded to more platforms, including mobile with Dota Underlords. That coupled with Steam on VR could provide a bit of insight into the reason Steam set a new record for the highest player count. This would explain the big difference of 12.2 million between players playing games on Steam and players just actually using Steam.  

This is despite the fact that Steam is getting a tough competition from Epic’s own Epic Launcher and the Game Pass from Microsoft.  

As of now, these are the top 10 most played games on Steam: 

1. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 

1. Dota 2 

1. PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 

1. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege 

1. Grand Theft Auto V 

1. MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD 

1. Football Manager 2020 

1. Rust 

1. Destiny 2 

1. Team Fortress 2