Steam’s concurrent user record breaches 7 million

by Mark Tyson on 2 December 2013, 10:45

Tags: Valve, PC

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Yesterday, at 10.57am ET, Steam broke its concurrent users record. The games download service surpassed 7 million concurrent users for the first time, it was actually 7,190,518 users fact-fans. However, in October Valve announced that Steam has 65 million active users, so it might not be surprising to find so many playing online at the same time.

It’s an interesting time in the video gaming industry; the Xbox One and PS4 have recently launched in many regions and we have just been through a few days of sales and promotional offers including Black Friday and Cyber Monday – Christmas is also looming. However the long wait for next gen consoles and their recent arrival doesn’t seem to have impacted the popularity of the mainly PC-based Steam games service.

Steam’s popularity right now, as mentioned above, could be down to some attractive sales on big games titles (see below, this sale ends tomorrow). Also of course, people were making use of their weekend to get in a bit of gaming time.

What are the most popular games to be playing on Steam right now? Dota 2 is by far the most popular game on the service at this time. This game enjoyed a peak current player count of over half a million today. Trailing behind at nearly 100,000 peak players today is Valve’s own Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The next three most popular games are The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Team Fortress 2 and Football Manager 2014.

With the release of Steam Machines, the Steam OS and the Steam Controller next year, the Steam platform can only become more popular.



HEXUS Forums :: 14 Comments

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sales… too …many….s…s….sales
However the long wait for next gen consoles and their recent arrival doesn’t seem to have impacted the popularity of the mainly PC-based Steam games service.

Steam’s popularity right now, as mentioned above, could be down to some attractive sales on big games titles
Hmm, judging by the comments here on Hexus, there's a good deal of disappointment with the “2013 gen” consoles - with a lot of comments along the lines of “I'll take my money and upgrade my PC instead”. Which is what I've done. :p

Steam sales I think should carry a health (or should that be “wealth”) warning - as long as you don't have to have the latest and greatest then there's some good deals to be had. Let's be honest - these days if you go for a title on launch day all you can guarantee is that you'll end up having to patch very shortly afterwards.

Funnily enough I was remarking to el missus at the weekend how easy Steam makes it. You buy the game via that system and all the updates etc are automatic. So if the SteamOS slaps OS upgrades in there too, then it's definitely going to be a nice environment - making Windows “umpteen updaters” look a bit stupid imho.
There's only ever a few games I buy full price, usually wait till stuff hits the tenner mark and then get it. Past few full price I have bought on day of release pre order were Dishonored and prior to that it was Borderlands 2. Played both for hours and I still fire Borderlands 2 up often.

I bought Castlevania Lords of Shadow on day of release but that was £20 so a fair price from the off on PC, next PC game I buy will be Deadly Premonition, listed as a tenner at the moment but with Christmas bearing down on us with the kids I am holding off till the Christmas sale on that one.

Bought Fez last night and been playing it a fair bit, its a fun little puzzle platform game and well worth the £1.74 price tag.
I will always be a pc gamer. Valve for President!!
Steam sale = madness. Nuff said.