Only a few weeks have passed since Steam previously broke the record for the most users online at the same time, and the platform has already accomplished this feat once again. Valve’s gaming platform has been a constant on the desktops of PC gamers for a long time because it is one of the biggest and most widely used video game storefronts and launchers, housing a huge library of games from a broad range of publishers.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that Steam doesn’t face any serious competition. Over the last decade or so, several publishers have launched their own gaming platforms, the most well-known of which are the Epic Games Store as well as GOG. Still, Steam has effectively cornered a substantial portion of the industry, as seen by its most recent aggregation of user statistics.
The stats Are Off The Charts
On Sunday, November 27th, there were a staggering 31,906,400 people online at the same time, citing SteamDB. The old best for users simultaneously on Steam was 30,049,264, so this is a significant rise. The discrepancy between the two counts might be explained by the fact that Steam claims there were 31,968,428 people online at the same time.
That doesn’t imply 30 million people were actively enjoying games on the platform at once; it merely means that many people were logged onto the service at once. Of them, SteamDB believes that 9.4 million were either running a game or utilizing the Steam client at any one time. Indeed, this is still a staggeringly remarkable number.
Furthermore supporting the idea that Valve’s client has only increased in popularity and relevance over time is Ubisoft’s intention to return to Steam after using Ubisoft Connect almost exclusively for a number of years. This is similar to the method used by Electronic Arts for its more recent releases, which also debut on Steam using a stripped-down edition of the EA App.
As one would expect, Steam’s massive weekly discounts are a major selling point. In particular, during the Steam Autumn Sale, players could pick up the Valve Complete Pack, which included over two dozen of Valve’s best games, for less than $7. Even though other markets have attempted to imitate and even surpass Steam’s prices on occasion, Steam is still the most widely used PC gaming client.
