Steam has had a series of records broken over the last few days, with the highest ever number of concurrent users online on Jan. 7 and the highest number of in-game users on Jan. 6.
According to Steam DB, site that tracks the Steam playerbase, the platform reached 33,675,229 concurrent users, a new peak. Just a day before, the record was broken for the number of players in-game at one time at 10,837,140. Steam first broke 30 million concurrent users back in Oct. 2022, with the previous record set in Mar. 2023.
According to GameSpot, Counter-Strike 2 was the most played game at the time with 1.2 million players at its peak. In second place, Dota 2 reached over 730,000 players. Both games are produced by Valve, the company behind Steam itself, and often feature at the top of charts.
Baldur’s Gate 3 also cracked the top 10 games with over 300,000 concurrent players, an impressive feat for a single-player game released in Aug. of last year. Grand Theft Auto V also demonstrated its staying power ahead of the release of the next installment in the series. Lethal Company, the indie co-op horror game that has made waves on Steam in recent months also made the list with over 200,000 concurrent players.
Beyond that, the top 10 was largely made up of always popular live-service multiplayer games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3/Warzone, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Team Fortress 2, and Rust, games that will likely continue to be a big draw on the platform.
Since its launch, Steam has seen a general increase in its users each year, with the Covid-19 pandemic causing a huge jump of around 5 million players. Since then, the numbers have further increased, with 2024 off to a promising start.
The winter months generally have a higher number of concurrent players than the summer, with peaks usually occurring between January and April. With a new record this early, it’s very possible that it will be broken again before the season is over.