Steam, the gaming platform by Valve, has set a new user record. Over 31.9 million people were online over the weekend, even if not everyone was actively playing. We reveal the exact numbers and which multiplayer games were particularly popular.
What was the record? According to the platform SteamDB, on November 27 at 3:20 PM German time, 31,906,400 users were logged into Steam. Of these, 9,423,733 were actively playing – also a record since tracking began in late 2017. The other nearly 20 million accounts were online but weren’t playing at that moment.
The previous record of 30.049 million users was set back in October 2022.
The user record was created from a mix of different factors. In America, Thanksgiving was celebrated on Thursday, which traditionally leads to a long weekend. However, it was still quite early in America – between 6:20 and 9:20 AM – which is why Europeans also played an important role in the numbers.
The weather and the autumn sale on Steam were likely decisive factors here. The sale runs until November 29. The release of Warzone 2 from the previous week was also significant, as the title was among the most successful games. You can watch the launch trailer again here:
All-Time Favorites dominate Steam over the weekend
Which games had the most players? At the time of the record, there was one game in first place that almost always dominates the Steam charts: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The shooter, published by Valve itself, had 1,009 million players at the time of the record and is generally among the most successful shooters in the world.
In second place was the MOBA DOTA 2 with 839,000 players. The game is also published by Valve itself and is the strongest competition to LoL in America and Europe.
In third place was the battle royale PUBG, which could attract 408,000 players. This game has been a perennial favorite on Steam for years, regularly breaking the 400,000 concurrent players mark. Its peak was in 2018 with about 3 million concurrent players.
The first new title comes in at fourth place. Warzone 2 took this spot with 384,000 players. This was also the highest player count for the entire weekend.
Interestingly, about 25% of all active players on Steam were logged into one of these four online games.
Where do the biggest MMORPGs stand? With Lost Ark, the first MMORPG made it to fifth place in the ranking. There were 276,000 players online at that point. In New World, there were about 71,000 players online at the time of the record, which was enough to make it into the top 10.
Both MMORPGs are only playable on Steam (at least the western version of Lost Ark), so these – like DOTA 2 and CS:GO – are the final player counts. Other online titles typically offer their own clients.
In the top 5 of MMORPGs are also ESO (21,700 players), Black Desert (18,600 players), and Final Fantasy XIV (17,000).
What were you playing at the time of the record on Sunday? And what are your favorites on Steam? Feel free to share in the comments.
On December 6, a new game will be released on Steam that has gone through a special journey:
