The MMO shooter Warframe reaches almost as many players as it did at its peak. This comes at the expense of the servers. However, the developers are doing their best to keep them from crashing.
How many players are there right now? According to SteamDB, 175,546 players have checked into Warframe on Steam in the last 24 hours (as of December 11, 2025, at 8:00 AM). This is almost the highest number of players reached since late July 2021. At that time, 189,837 players stormed the servers of the loot shooter.
In July 2021, the numbers were so high because the TennoCon took place at that time. This is a huge event for Warframe that occurs every July. In 2021, there were particularly many free content and bonuses that players likely wanted to claim in-game, as well as the update “Sisters of Parvos”.
Keep in mind: The numbers only apply to the players logging in via Steam. However, Warframe is still accessible via its own launcher, the Epic Games Store, and the mobile version. Console players are also missing from the statistics.
Nevertheless, it is an impressive achievement that Warframe attracts a large number of players after so many years. And there is a good reason for that.
Warframe experiences its 2nd spring thanks to a free update
Why are there so many? On December 10, 2025, “The Old Peace” was released, a new major update. This includes a new story, new modes, and a new Warframe. Therefore, the update contains far more than just bug fixes and free items for players.
What do the developers say about it? They did not expect such a surge. On X, Rebb Ford, Creative Director at Warframe, writes that they are doing their best to keep the servers running:
We are doing our best to keep everything running, but we did not expect such a strong increase in concurrent Warframe users.
It could therefore be that the servers may crash under even heavier pressure. So don’t be surprised if the servers do go offline, even though the developers are trying to prevent it.
Furthermore, Rebb Ford is not just talking about Steam, but generally about servers. This suggests that the situation is similar on other launchers and platforms, and Warframe is generally becoming more popular among players again.
Warframe has now been around for 12 years. There are several reasons why one can still check back into the MMO shooter after all these years. A YouTuber explains what fascinates him after 1,000 hours of play: YouTuber plays a loot shooter on Steam for 1,000 hours, explaining why the game is still so good after 12 years
