A record had been broken on Steam, with the platform hosting over 10 million players playing at the same time for the first time ever.
Steam has officially broken its historical record of having more than 10 million concurrent players on their PC gaming platform. The achievement was first spotted on Saturday, January 7, where a reported 10,082,055 players were in-game on the Valve-run service app. This number was broken on Sunday with a peak of 10,284,568 players on at the same time. Additionally, Steam also broke records in its all-time peak of overall concurrent users with its numbers reaching 33,078,963.
Twitter user SteamDB first reported these numbers from Steam, providing graphs and statistics. Many sources stated how this was not the first time the platform had over 30 million concurrent users online because concurrent users included those who had the client software running in the background.
However, it was still important to note since the service had only recently passed this 30 million mark—occurred during a weekend in mid-October 2022. Sources tracked that at the end of November (with Thanksgiving celebrations), that Steam had over 31 million concurrent users. And apparently, the service has been holding strong with the new year as every day has had 30 million concurrent users online.
The 10 million in-game players at the same time was the more astounding stat reported on Steam though. It has shown how Valve’s audience base still has more room to attract, especially while it surged throughout the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020.
So, what games helped this record-breaking surge in gamers in 2023? The platform’s strongest performers were the staple games such as CS: GO, Apex Legends, Dota 2, and Grand Theft Auto V. Some other strong contenders were Amazon’s MMO Lost Ark and Wallpaper Engine. One of the most surprising entries was the Among Us clone game Goose Goose Duck. The game had been out since October 2021 but had grown in popularity in the last couple of months since members of the K-Pop group BTS had been playing it lately. It even surpassed the Among Us concurrent player numbers at the start of 2023!
It is possible that this surge in Steam players and users could be explained as more consoles are reaching its customers, and Steam Deck sales continue to rise. The handheld console had struggled at its launch since it was backordered for almost a year. But, I have even seen more of my family members getting their Steam Decks, so maybe this has had an effect with more users populating Valve’s software—and the numbers may continue to rise in the next year as more consumers purchase and receive one.
