Key Takeaways
- Half-Life 2 just celebrated its 20th anniversary, which also saw it being made free for purchase for a limited time.
- This has caused Half-Life 2’s all-time concurrent player count to skyrocket to more than 63,000 players.
- Hope you’re watching closely, Valve – there’s clearly a lot of interest in Half-Life still.
Following an update for its 20th anniversary that makes the game free to purchase for a limited time, Half-Life 2 has managed to reach a new all-time player count on Steam.
Although it’s true that Valve isn’t exactly as productive as it used to be when it comes to making new games (that we’ve seen, at least), it still knows how to throw a hell of an anniversary celebration. Half-Life fans found that to be true once again on Half-Life 2’s 20th anniversary yesterday, which had Valve release a two-hour-long documentary about its development.
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You might think that a documentary that finally gives us our first glimpse of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 would be the biggest news of the week for fans, but that was just the beginning. Valve also celebrated the game’s anniversary by making it completely free on Steam for a limited time (until November 18), opening the floodgates for a bunch of new players.
Half-Life 2 Breaks Previous All-Time Player Count After Being Made Free For A Limited Time
If that was the intent, then it seems to have worked very well for Valve. As pointed out by ResetEra user FarSight XR-20, Half-Life 2 just hit a brand-new all-time concurrent player count that far exceeds the numbers it had previously reached. As of the time of writing, SteamDB reveals that Half-Life 2’s all-time record is 63,127 players, which is quite the feat for a 20-year-old game.
Taking a look at the SteamDB charts reveals that the previous all-time player count for Half-Life 2 was 16,101, which it achieved during the “Breaking the Bar” community event. Aside from that, its previous peaks have been 12,953 in 2012 for the “A Red Letter Day” event, and a random 6,939 players back in March of 2020.
Half-Life 2 is also currently sitting at 11th place in the daily Top 20 charts, which is another impressive feat.
Of course, it should come as no surprise that Half-Life 2 has hit this new peak considering it’s currently free-to-own and is celebrating its 20th anniversary. That, combined with the new details about Episode 3 that we got in the documentary, is sure to bring a boost to any game, although it is remarkable that it’s nearly six times more than the previous record.
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