Steam breaks the concurrent user record: 2021 was an extremely successful year for the Steam platform. The PC gaming storefront and the social media platform witnessed its number of users exceed 25 million at peak users concurrently at the beginning of 2021.
Then, it ended the year with 27 million. 2022 appears to accelerate that growth. Steam first broke its highest simultaneous user records on January 2, close to 28 million, and then it broke the following day again on Jan.
9 when it crossed 28 million the very first time. It was a second time on January 16, when it was nearing 29 million. This is an unprecedented fourth consecutive week; in 2022, Steam continues to break its record for concurrent users.
From a low of 27 million users before the beginning of 2022, Steam has added more than a million users to its highest concurrent user record. It has passed the mark of 29 million online users simultaneously.
The record for the new record is 29,198,370. It’s a huge accomplishment for a platform introduced in 2003 to surpass the 10 million mark in 2015.
It then hit 20 million by 2020 and is poised to hit 30 million within months.
There’s no explanation why Steam has enjoyed an amazing start to 2022and the reason why this week has seen it surpass 29 million concurrent players.
Steam breaks the concurrent user record
The sale for the winter holidays is made. The top-selling game for the week is the PC port of the version released in 2018 of God of War and any major events such as Valve’s annual Dota 2 tournament, The International.
This is an easy result of the healthy growth of Steam.
However, even though there’s no clear explanation for Steam’s sudden jump of 29 million concurrent users, there are a few contributing elements.
Both Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel and Monster Hunter Rise were released last week and are ranked among the top 10 games played by simultaneous players. Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel even reached an astonishing 263,000.
Steam’s three most popular games currently, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and PUBG Battlegrounds, All are equally performing well.
CS: GO was just shy of one million concurrent users for its game alone.
The issue to ask right now is how high Steam will go, both in the short-term and in the long term.
Steam has seen an explosive growth rate in 2020 and 2021. Both years’ expansion periods reached their peak in April.
So, another few weeks of increased growth on Steam in 2022 shouldn’t be unsurprising and more growth to come in the latter part of 2022.
Additionally, there are some significant PC games due to launch very soon. Dying Light 2 launches on February 4, then MMO Lost Ark, which launches on February 11.
The Destiny 2 Witch Queen expansion on February 22 and Elden Ring on February 25.
Steam’s four weeks of establishing new records could likely last for a long time.
In a negative month, Steam may beat its new record for concurrent users every weekend. Its Steam Deck’s debut in February is sure to boost the momentum. 30 million is easily within reach, but Steam‘s actual peak might be several million more ahead.