On February 2, there were more users online on Steam than ever before. Even though Epic Games continually takes jabs at Valve’s platform, it remains very popular.
What record is this? As reported by Steam Database, on February 2 at 3:20 PM, there were more users online than ever before. 18,801,944 people were using Valve’s platform simultaneously.
The previous record from January 14, 2018, was surpassed by almost 270,000 users.
However, it is interesting that significantly fewer users were actively playing a game. While about 7 million users were gaming during the old record in 2018, only about 5.8 million were playing in 2020.
.@Steam has broken its record for most concurrently online users that was held for two years. Previous record was 18,537,490 users. It’s still increasing!
— Steam Database (@SteamDB) February 2, 2020
But there’s about 1 million less players actually in-game (≈5.8mil vs ≈7mil two years ago).https://t.co/D6WDHbz0B4
Why are the numbers surprising? The all-time high for concurrent users had no specific reason. There was no special release, and the fact that fewer users played indicates that the record was likely created by chance.
Moreover, in recent years, more and more individual shops and launchers have emerged that wanted to compete with Steam. The largest is the Epic Games Store, which launched in December 2018, after the old record.
This is particularly attractive for developers, as Steam wants 30% of the money made from games, while Epic Games only takes 12%.
However, despite better conditions for game developers and promotions for players, many users seem to remain loyal to Steam. At least that is suggested by the new record.
Epic is trying hard to lure players away from Steam
How is Epic trying to attract players? Since the launch of the Epic Games Store, there have been many promotions aimed at drawing players to the shop.
The exclusive deal with Metro: Exodus caused a significant stir, where Steam had to remove the game from its shop just before release and after the pre-order phase began. The deal lasts for a year, meaning Metro: Exodus is theoretically available again on Steam starting mid-February 2020.
Subsequent deals included:
- Dauntless
- Borderlands 3
- Magic: The Gathering Arena
- Beyond: Two Souls
- and many other games.
What other methods does Epic use? Furthermore, beyond exclusive deals, Epic continually tries to gain attention with monthly free games. Often there are even really good titles included.
Currently, you can get the popular Farming Simulator 19 for free until February 6. On other platforms, you would pay around 20 euros for it.
Epic Store is successful, even if not everything works out
Do all of Epic’s actions succeed? Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, states that he wants to destroy Steam’s monopoly with the Epic Games Store. But that doesn’t always work.
An example is Red Dead Redemption 2, which was exclusive to the Epic Store for only one month. After that, it came to Steam and performed much better there. The one-month wait was not a significant hurdle for players in this case.
How is the Epic Store doing? Nevertheless, the Epic Games Store is successful. In January 2020, Tim Sweeney reported a cross-platform total of 300 million users.
While this does not compare to Steam, which has over 1 billion accounts, the expectations have still been exceeded.
Steam is trying to hold its ground
How is Steam trying to hold its ground? Steam has discovered the Chinese market. Through this, the platform aims to gain new players. There was also a free erotic game given away to keep players in their homes and prevent them from contracting the coronavirus.
Additionally, Steam is trying to open itself up to more platforms, including the mobile sector with Dota Underlords and a client for Chromebooks.
Moreover, there was a deal with EA that is set to bring some popular games back to the platform:
