Steam Reaches New Milestone with 10 Million Concurrent Players Gaming Simultaneously

Over the weekend, Steam, the popular PC gaming marketplace and community, hit a new milestone of 10 million concurrent players all playing video games at the same time. This is a significant achievement, as it means that 10 million people were actively engaged in gaming, rather than just idling in the browser or storefront.

Steam began tracking in-game concurrent users in 2017, and the last big spike under this measure occurred on March 30, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was driving everyone indoors. The number of players dropped off as life returned to normal, but came back to hit a high of 9.2 million concurrent in-game players over the Valentine’s Day weekend in 2022.

Additionally, Steam notched 32 million concurrent online users, not necessarily in a game, on Thursday, which is also a record. The most popular games among the players were Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Apex Legends.

This milestone is a testament to the continued growth of Steam's user base, which is likely helped by the release of the handheld Steam Deck, which is about to celebrate its one-year anniversary. Steam itself will turn 20 years old in September of this year, making it a long-standing and well-established platform in the gaming industry.