Steam Passes Another Incredible Player Milestone

PC video game distribution platform Steam has passed the 40 million concurrent user mark for the first time ever. It’s a remarkable achievement for Steam, which remains the dominant distribution service of choice for most PC players.

Steam was initially launched in late 2003, with Valve using it as a way to distribute its own games digitally, notably the critically acclaimed FPS Half-Life 2. As the years passed, more and more third-party publishers began to release their own games on Steam, and set the service up for success. For many gamers, the popularity of Steam is largely down to Valve continuing to make consumer-friendly choices on the platform, in an industry where many feel the opposite is largely true. With players building up their game libraries on Steam over the years, it’s getting harder and harder to dethrone Steam, no matter the resources of the competitor.

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SteamDB’s charts have revealed that Steam has just crossed the 40 million concurrent users milestone for the first time ever, after coming close a few times over the last few weeks. The total peak is sitting at 40,270,997 and could still rise. It’s not clear exactly what has caused the milestone on this occasion, although it could be down to the massively successful launch of Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam, with it jumping into the top five all-time high player counts on the platform.

Steam Passes 40 Million Concurrent Users For the First Time

Looking at the patterns of years gone by, it wasn’t until late 2022 that Steam managed to reach 30 million concurrent users, which in itself was a massive achievement at the time. To add another 10 million in what is ultimately a pretty short space of time is mighty impressive, and the charts don’t lie: the number is only going up from here.

It seemingly doesn’t matter what its competitors do: gamers are still flocking to Steam to fulfill all their PC gaming needs. Even the Epic Games Store’s free games initiative hasn’t proven enough to convince many players to move over permanently. With the platform crossing 40 million concurrent users for the first time ever, it’s difficult to see a situation in which Steam ever becomes irrelevant in the PC space, especially if it continues to make those consumer-friendly decisions mentioned earlier.

Steam

Brand

Valve

Original Release Date

September 12, 2003

Original MSRP (USD)

N/A

Weight

N/A