Steam Shatters Its Own Record for Online PC Players Again

Steam has once again set a new record for the highest number of concurrent PC players online, reaching an astonishing 38,366,479 players on September 22, 2024. This new milestone surpasses the previous record by over a million players, which was achieved just last month, largely thanks to the highly anticipated release of the hit game Black Myth: Wukong.

So, what drove this surge in players over the weekend? The usual favorites dominated the top 10 most-played games on Valve’s platform. Titles like Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG were joined by newcomers such as Black Myth: Wukong, Satisfactory 1.0, Space Marine 2, and Valve’s own Deadlock. Additionally, last week saw the debut of PlayStation exclusives God of War Ragnarok and Final Fantasy 16 on Steam, contributing to the impressive player count.

Steam's popularity continues to rise as Valve strengthens its hold on the PC gaming market. Competing platforms like the Epic Games Store and CD Projekt’s GOG hold only a small share of the gaming landscape, while Steam consistently breaks records, even during perceived downturns in the industry. The introduction of the Steam Deck has also expanded the ways players can access their favorite games.

The big question now is whether Steam can reach that coveted 40 million concurrent players mark. With the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 next month, it certainly seems like a possibility!

Trivia about Steam:

Steam was launched in September 2003 as a platform for automatic updates for Valve games, but it has since evolved into the largest digital distribution platform for PC gaming.

In 2017, Steam introduced the Steam Workshop, allowing users to create and share content for games, which has significantly boosted community engagement.

 
Steam's seasonal sales events, like the Summer Sale and Winter Sale, are famous for offering massive discounts and attracting millions of players eager to snag deals.

 
The platform supports a wide range of games, from indie titles to AAA blockbusters, and has a robust user review system that helps gamers make informed decisions.

MultiVersus Has Taken Steam By Storm

MultiVersus entered early access on July 19 and doesn’t become available to all until tomorrow, July 26, but that hasn’t stopped the game from becoming more popular than all other fighting games put together, at least according to the Steam Charts. The game beats popular games like Street Fighter V, Brawlhalla, and Tekken 7. MultiVersus has more than 46,ooo players online. 

The game currently has an all-time peak of 62,433 players over the last week according to the Steam Charts on SteamDB. In comparison, the next biggest fighting game is Dragon Ball FighterZ whose all-time peak was 44,303 players, while fellow free-to-play game Brawlhalla managed to peak at 34,816 players. In seven days, MultiVersus has become the most popular fighting game on the platform. According to Event Hubs, MultiVersus had an average player count of 38,872 over the last seven-day period. This is more than 13 of the other most popular fighting games put together over a similar period of time. Between Brawlhalla, Tekken 7, DNF Duel, Street Fighter V, Mortal Kombat 11, Guilty Gear Strive, Dragon Ball FighterZ, King of Fighters XV, Rivals of Aether, Granblue Fantasy: Versus, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Melty Blood: Type Lumina, and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, the average player count totals 28,902. While there are plenty of other fighting games on Steam, none of them have numbers that would make a significant difference to the total. MultiVersus’ player numbers are only set to grow tomorrow when the game enters its open beta period, which is set to last for a period of several months. The game will receive its first new character at the same time in the form of Space Jam’s LeBron. Rick and Morty are set to follow when Season 1 begins with more to come in the future.

Steam Deck VS Nintendo Switch

The survey conducted by e-commerce aggregator iPrice Group showed that across Asian countries, people have been registering much more interest in Valve's Steam Deck compared to the new Nintendo Switch OLED. For comparison, both consoles are designated to launch towards the end of 2021, but it seems that Asian interest in the Steam Deck has already outdone that of the new Switch OLED. Within the month of July 2021, Asians Google searched the Steam Deck around three times more than the Nintendo Switch OLED.

In Southeast Asia, the number of search results showed that people clearly cared way more about the Steam Deck, while countries such as Hong Kong and Taiwan were more neutral in terms of search results. Curiously, Japan showed over eight times more interest in Valve's new console compared to the Switch OLED, which is surprising considering Japan's well-documented love for the platform and most of its titles. The first factor is obvious Nintendo's Switch platform has been around for a good number of years now, and the new Switch OLED only offers marginal upgrades over its predecessor most notably the inclusion of a larger OLED panel. Understandably, the market for such devices has already worn out its excitement for the Switch platform and its games, while Valve's Steam Deck presents more of an unknown quantity with regards to handheld gaming. One huge attraction factor the Steam Deck has is its ability to play games cross-platform, which simply means that users can game alongside those playing on PC instead of being forced into just playing within a handheld-only community. This factor proves even more crucial when you take into account the current pandemic and the demand for more gaming options among those stuck at home. According to iPrice, the Steam Deck is set to have up to 111 more cross-play titles compared to the Switch platform, which gives it a heavy advantage in terms of multiplayer flexibility. From day one, the Steam Deck will reportedly be able to run games such as Valheim, Overcooked! 2, Terraria, and Sid Meier's Civilization VI. Coincidentally, iPrice says that the Steam Deck is also set to become the gaming console with the most cross-play titles upon launch (172 titles), beating out the Playstation 4 (147 titles), and Xbox One (109 titles). However, this doesn't mean that prospective buyers should ignore the Nintendo Switch platform completely. Alongside the announcement of the new OLED version, Nintendo also announced the extremely-hyped The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild 2, which looks to become yet another modern classic in the Switch's line-up of unique exclusives (Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Pokémon series, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, etc). Ultimately, the decision for which of these two handheld dominators to pick comes down to the type of gamer you are, and what titles you hope to play alongside your buddies. The Steam Deck is set to launch in December 2021 with a touted price of US$399 for the base model, while the Nintendo Switch OLED looks ready for an October 2021 launch with a starting price of US$349.99.