It’s been a while since our last report on Steam’s concurrent players, don’t you think? Well, earlier today, Steam set a new record as it surpassed over 33 million players that were simultaneously online.
As we can see, Steam was really close to also hitting its 34 million goal. A few hours ago, Steam had 73.675 million concurrent players. That’s a huge number. Not only that but it’s also another indication of Steam’s dominance in the PC digital market.
Let’s now take a look at the Most Played games on Steam when the platform hit this goal. The most popular game Counter-Strike 2 with a peak of 1.2 million players. Then we have DOTA 2, followed by PUBG: Battlegrounds. Baldur’s Gate 3, a single-player RPG, is in fourth place with a 24h peak of 287K players. Baldur’s Gate 3 came out in 2023. So yeah, this is another indication of how popular – and successful – this RPG is on PC.
Another single-player game, GTA5, is in sixth place. GTA5 had a 24h peak of 213K players. And yet, despite those numbers, Rockstar will not bring the next part of the series on PC at launch. As I’ve said multiple times, this was a business decision and nothing more. Take-Two and Rockstar know there is a huge PC audience for GTA. And no, this has nothing to do with Rockstar being unable to develop the PC version alongside its console cousin. That’s complete B-SHT. If other, smaller, studios can do it, so can Rockstar.
But back in the charts. In seventh place, we find Rust, followed by Team Fortress 2 and Apex Legends. And in tenth place, we find Call of Duty. This COD entry includes MW3, MW2 and Warzone. THE FINALS, another game that came out recently, is in thirteenth place. And we can also find Football Manager 2024 in fifteenth place.
And there you have it. Now let’s see how long it will take for Steam to surpass 34 million concurrent players!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Well done Gaben. I think back a few years ago when Steam was setting new records and the EGS apologists were saying it meant nothing because of the Covid lock downs and people were bored and the new records would end after the pandemic died down.
Well……they didn’t
Roblox and free fire draw way more users.
I’d care about this number if they were playing quality games not free-to-play and online garbage.
I had steam on my machines since …november 4th 2004?…halflife 2 included it as drm…back before them days you could trade in pc games it was great rip em find the cd key crack and bickety bam……yea love steam even though they screwed us all….wish they would do more quality control.
I detested Steam when it first opened and refused to get an account there just so that I could play games that I was already willing to pay for. It took me a few years to finally get an account anyway and over the years I have become quite happy with the service as it grew and improved.
There is one side to this that you may have forgotten. In the early 2000s their was a growing disdain for PC gamers among Publishers/Developers because of what we now call pirating. Some Developers were saying openly that console gaming was the future and making games available for PC didn’t really matter because PC gamers weren’t buying their product anyway. They were stealing it. Many gamers were saying that PC gaming was dying.
Consolitis was a problem with PC games. For example I recall Warren Specter admitting about 10 years ago that the PC version of Deus Ex: Invisible War was a mere afterthought. It was obvious to us even in 2003 that was the case but at least the guy finally admitted to it.
Steam offered Publishers a more effective way to cut down on Piracy. Publishers went for it over time and felt like investing money into the PC versions of games made good business sense.
Not only did Steam introduce widespread DRM on PC, Valve made exclusivity deals with developers. I remember buying a Physical copy of Mafia, only to find out they sold you a Steam code. When the developer was pressed on this and why their game was not simply available as a standalone download, they said they made a deal with Valve.
The exact same thing Epic is now accused of (rightfully so) is something that Steam did all the time, exclusivity deals, they paid developers to be on Steam.
Remember when gaming sites still had a spine.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0881b35fc603b3fee5ac765facf9c4ac2241237b749dd45825faeedd3ec2d4e.jpg
Steam is not a monopoly. There are plenty of other online stores. Valve isn’t buying up other stores to eliminate competition.
At this point it’s clear that you probably don’t really believe the things that you are saying and you’re just trolling.
Flying blocked me for ruining his trolling expedition. lol Oh well, I honestly can’t recall any comments from him that were of any use for PC gaming anyway which is what I come here for to begin with. Nothing lost.
Are you an idiot?
Valve is literally on trial right now because they forced game developers into contracts that prevent them from charging a cheaper price for their games elsewhere, and they limit how many games they can sell as Steam keys on other platforms.
Btw, your buddy Gabe needs to come before a courtroom soon to explain this anti-competitive behavior.
The pùssy tried to get out from under it by claiming it leaves him exposed to COVID, the judge shut the baby down.
The fatty will be in court this year explaining why he forbid game developers to lower prices on other platforms.
The biggest pússy in the world:
What does that have to do with whether or not Valve is guilty of monopolistic practices?
Edit: Also, we don’t know what his health conditions are. With a few people they have a combination of health problems that makes catching Covid a likely death sentence.
Literally nothing. I just enjoy pointing out what a pússy Gabe Newell is. In my country, if someone said they would not appear in court due to COVID fears, police would break your door down and put you in jail. Meanwhile, in the US, the billionaire fatty managed to get a courtroom to wear N95 masks just for him. Screw this guy and his platform.
He never said he wouldn’t appear. He just asked if he could testify remotely. In America the same thing would happen to anyone that refused to appear including Newell. If the judge had not make the allowance to have the Covid masks worn Newell still would have had to appear in court or a Bench Warrant would have been issued and he would be arrested.
There is something else you need to understand about my country. People and businesses get sued over next to nothing on a regular basis. It’s the most litigious country in the world and frankly it’s embarrassing to a lot of us.
And Valve is accusing the law firm Zaiger of trying to extort a settlement from them. Being accused of something isn’t the same thing as being guilty of it.
When there is a conclusion to this then it will be time to pass judgement.
I would argue it is a monopoly similar to what big social media companies are nowadays. I don`t think it`s totally their fault, but the audience as well who refuses to give a bigger share to other stores. In essence, they are sucessful and their pratices end up having an effect on the rest of the industry, for good or ill.
There are things that are bad about Steam imo. Things that I don’t like too. For example I think User Reviews there are mostly worthless and it was just a few hours ago here that I was commenting on the mountain of trash games on Steam that is growing year after year unchecked but by definition they are not even close to a monopoly as defined in common use of the word:
Definitions from Oxford Languages.
mo·nop·o·ly
/məˈnäpəlē/
the exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service.
I just don’t think it’s fair to call Steam something that they clearly are not because a person has other issues with Steam.
Monopoly does not mean you are the only vendor in a market. That is almost never the case.
EU competition law defines monopoly as a controlling stake in a market, a controlling stake that stiffles competition. Steam is a monopoly.
Steam doesn’t have a controlling stake in the market. What do you think Steam is controlling?
“What do you think Steam is controlling?”
Youtube says you can’t make videos about X subject, if you do your account gets demonetized and/or banned. Does forcing behaviours and values on the users of the biggest online video sharing service constitute monopoly? Does youtube have a controlling stake in the market of online video sharing? Does Steam have a similar pratice?
Other video hosting services are available. Other game stores are available. Neither YouTube or Steam are controlling.
That’s the standard libertarian non-answer, that doesn’t address the core of the issue. If you are an youtuber and they ban you for whatever reason they basically crippled your career. Network effects are real, if you are not on the biggest online platforms it’s like you don’t even exist. And those services are definitely in the controlling business.
Facebook, Floatplane, OnlyFans, Patreon, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter, etc.?
Lots of people end up getting banned on multiple platforms, and even then it’s not like they can be sucessful in multiple social media. You are missing the point again, this is arguably worse than a traditional monopoly, when companies get big, suddenly they change their terms of service, meaning they want us to behave the way they want or else. How people don’t see this as a problem is itself a problem.
The point was that Steam isn’t controlling anything…
Yes YouTube has changed it’s T&Cs but that has always been for the better. There are darker sites out there if If you wish to look at more adult or illegal content.
I’m not talking about adult or illegal content, unless you accept youtube’s frame of what those things are. And Steam control plenty of things, what kind of games they allow, pricing, their cut of game sales, etc.
I do accept YouTube’s stance on acceptable content. Indeed many times I feel they don’t go far enough.
I’d argue Steam have gone too far in what they term acceptable due to the amount of adult content available without any real form of age verification. I’ve not seem any attempt by Steam to control pricing but their cut is their cut being what they wish it to be.
Lmao this is rich, so you want these companies to be even bigger monopolies than they already are, while arguing they are not monopolies, because apparently ~monopoly~ is a bad word?
I don’t consider either to be monopolies as even someone such as yourself is free to set up in competition. Valve won’t stop you selling games and YouTube won’t stop you hosting videos.
There are several dimensions on what a monopoly is. It’s not about setting shop in a no man’s land and hoping you will get big just like the big players, yeah of course you are allowed to be irrelevant, since no one cares. In fact, a lot of celebrities, politicians and influencers are astroturfed by those very platforms, while also throttling the opposition, which also constitutes a monopoly on influence.
So far they hold a monopoly on influence, reach, behaviour and the government uses these platform to bypass legal rights, so basically corruption.
“Valve won’t stop you selling games and YouTube won’t stop you hosting videos.”
Not true, did you miss the part where they ban people for frivolous bs reasons? Even Steam did that to a developer who was against the trans mafia.
I meant that Valve won’t stop you from setting up your own store and selling games and YouTube won’t stop you from setting up your own media hosting.
You already said that, getting old?
Yes, sometimes you have to tell the kids more than once 😉
You’re the one acting childish here.
We started discussing Steam as you felt Steam controlled the market. You decided to go off topic with YouTube which I entertained. You didn’t like the answer choosing to maintain the idea of monopoly where none exist…
I used youtube as an analogy, could be another social media site like instagram, facebook, whatsapp… I’m just saying you have a narrow idea of what a monopoly is, that leads you and a bunch of people to think it is a thing of the past.
Even if it is a monopoly, we like it this way
Yeah well no surprises there and why would rs care too much with V on this list for a decade or so? Steam is a pc thing might as well get console sales and build an online component with the fixed systems of consoles for a couple years then have another huge windfall on pc. You also limit your support needed to 2 consoles worth of customers, less cost. The biggest market is pc no doubt so of coure it will come to pc but no need to rush it. And foos going double dip and such. How many times you read in the steam revs and discussions about dumbos saying they bought this there and there and now here and got locked out bought it again, smh lmao Ah meats with the crank to your head logo lol
And also meats killed the used games market in pc’s, if you use a required online authenticator there’s no reason to not have a used games market even digitally at whatever people will pay for it used. And don’t say digital can’t be used, the only difference with cartridges was just that, the software on the cartridge wasn’t “used”. The whole industry obviously has a vested interest in no used market which they don’t control or get a cut of so cartridges have to go. If they wanted, a simple usb3 or usbc or even a 125gb sata w a usb directly onto it would work. Repacks have proven this is def feasible for 99% of games. The largest benefit is a major stage for truly indy game makers who are there due to passion and creativity and only secondarily to make a fortune if it catches on for mostly quality purposes and not marketing hypnotism and paid reviews via ad buys and such.
Steam is trash, I got banned for 3 days in the
forums, for saying they made Natasha ugly in the game compared to the nameplates.
You reeeeed like a goddamn cringecel I bet.
Imagine complaining that a vibiogame character is not hot.
Your mom should limit your access to the internet.
Ok h*mo
Valve’s response when a journalist/gamer asked what would happen to their games if they are unwilling to agree to a change in the Terms of Service.
who’s natasha?
The redhead from Avengers
her jawline is too masculine.
How low do your standards have to be to use Steam.
99% of Steam is Denuvo infested garbage, crypto malware, anime trash, pòrn and dating games made for símps, and thousands of low quality games.
Steam is the flea market of gaming. The lowest common denominator with 0 curation. The mainstream normie platform with the absolute worst trash imaginable.
I have more respect for console gamers than Steam simps spending real money on a DRM platform. At least Switch owners demand a physical copy.
Tell that to the 34 millions + users lol
My comparison to a flea market was unfair, a flea market actually has low prices. Steam is a flea market with boutique prices.
A flea market run by an absolute pússy who flew off to New-Zealand and hunkered down for 5 months in his mansion, because the pússy was scared to catch COVID.
There was a time I’d wake up at 3am to play dota2 or csgo. I kind of miss those days now.
Not really. Steam introduced mass scale DRM through Steamworks DRM and forcing a launcher onto people. Steam was absolutely hated before PC gaming became more mainstream, it was considered pointless bloat. The mainstream PC gamer enjoys Steam, but they also think Marvel makes good movies.
When Ubisoft pulled their game from Steam a few months ago, Steam fans like yourself were crying.
DRM is Steam’s issue, not mine. I simply don’t buy from Steam and use GoG instead where you own the games you buy.
You’re right DRM is a Steam issue. Ubisoft certainly doesn’t do the exact same thing and throw layers of DRM on top of that.
There’s nothing wrong with buying from GOG but if you only buy from GOG you seriously limit your choices in games. I suspect you are sailing the high seas anyway if you won’t buy from Steam or one of the other Stores.
Ubisoft their games are DRM-free on GoG, so it’s a Steam issue.
Translation: If you don’t do like I do you are a thief. Because… you have ethics.
You are aware that Steam offer a DRM and do not demand it right ? It’s a choice and said choice Is entirely up to the Publisher/Developer if they want to use it or not.
Plenty of games on Steam are complelty DRM free, hell the “DRM” that steam has you´re complained about, anyone can bypass it with certain tools if you so desire it.
Mass Scale DRM existed before Steam was ever a thing.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Digital_rights_management_(DRM)
I loved you better than you would ever be able to express here. The picture is beautiful, and your wording is elegant; nonetheless, you read it in a short amount of time. I believe that you ought to give it another shot in the near future. If you make sure that this trek is safe, I will most likely try to do that again and again.
To all the Valve & Steam haters:
Please keep in mind that PC gaming would have been dead by now if Valve hadn’t saved it by building up the largest digital store for it.
And right now, Valve is working very hard to give everybody a free alternative to Windows in the form of SteamOS, which you will be able to install on your PC absolutely free of charge, even alongside Windows in the form of a dual-boot configuration if you so wish.
To give you an idea of the current state of SteamOS vs. Windows, here are some random screenshots from a Digital Foundry clip where they compared the Steam Deck to the ROG Ally.
But first, please keep the following in mind when looking at the results:
– The Steam Deck has clearly inferior hardware compared to the ROG Ally.
– All the benchmarked games are Windows-only titles, meaning they are running non-natively on the Steam Deck via the Proton compatibility layer, which constantly translates the games to Linux compatible APIs in real-time.
Without further ado, here are the results:
Forza Horizon 5
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/711bf086709e84e1e99e846e302219267ee1ec726e8ba32a7e5e5c0d985e897e.png
A Plague Tale – Requiem
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/409e8418fc8dbdc30fb1eaefef1e3fa299df8937a811eb0ecc43b30002ed0410.png
Marvel’s Spider-Man
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8282fa37ebe3dc2de0b900d7374a2f29a5d46f76cdb03ac7dad7983dec1e4944.png
Cyberpunk 2077
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fae55b4074a643614ebca67ce2d1443f39d7b80db930240f7897b5ddbf43118a.png
Honestly, even I was shocked to see how far SteamOS has advanced already…
Eh, no, Steam tapped on a uncharted market and got huge dividends for being the first, but that doesn’t mean Steam “saved” PC gaming. Imagine if online PC stores never got off the ground, the top games would still be mmorpgs and the like, maybe a bit less single player games.
I enjoyed it just as much as you will be able to accomplish here. You should be apprehensive about providing the following, but the sketch is lovely and the writing is stylish; yet, you should definitely return back as you will be doing this walk so frequently.
Would it be possible to understand the monthly total of how many accounts are actually active? we are talking about 10 times as much, therefore between 250 and 300 million accounts
because there are people who play every day but there are people who only do it at the weekend!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0606b507ba4c6e7124558cc06d2e99dabc0779879b7b3fb9b6e824adac41fdba.png
I feel like in the distant future people are going to deeply regret not supporting sites like GOG. Steam undoubtedly has the most comprehensive all-in-one feature set and feels the most polished compared to other PC clients, but it comes at the cost of not being able to own the things you buy on there. DRM-free games and software do exist on the platform but I’m sure they’re minuscule in proportion to those that aren’t.
Windows 7 users already regretting rightfully.
Windows 7 users already regretting rightfully.
True. Literally everything about the past is so much better no matter where you look. This industry is in desperate need of a full restart but things are undoubtedly going to get much worse before that happens.
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“Now let’s see how long it will take for Steam to surpass 34 million concurrent players!”
I was about to ask, are you going to have an article when they hit 34, 35 etc. Apparently you really are. Who cares???
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