Steam's digital platform, owned by Valve, continues to gain increasing popularity. Just a few months ago, we announced that the store had set a new record by reaching 33.6 million active users simultaneously.
Yesterday, at exactly 14:00 UTC, Steam broke this record again, reaching 34.298 million concurrent users, according to SteamDB data. If you're interested, here's a list of the top 100 games played on Steam according to their peak player count in the last 24 hours:
Top Games on Steam by Concurrent Players:
Counter-Strike 2 (1,474,396)
Dota 2 (705,679)
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS (627,348)
Apex Legends (465,266)
HELLDIVERS 2 (429,446)
NARAKA: BLADEPOINT (286,947)
Palworld (273,204)
Last Epoch (223,801)
Source SDK Base 2007 (201,592)
Grand Theft Auto V (166,477)
Baldur's Gate 3 (146,223)
Wallpaper Engine (122,981)
Rust (122,824)
ELDEN RING (112,016)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (107,565)
Call of Duty (107,124)
War Thunder (100,990)
Monster Hunter: World (85,752)
Team Fortress 2 (78,014)
Warframe (75,398)
Football Manager 2024 (75,325)
Sid Meier's Civilization VI (74,669)
Lethal Company (73,240)
Crab Game (68,586)
Granblue Fantasy: Relink (67,889)
Stardew Valley (67,864)
DayZ (64,672)
Spacewar (61,198)
Unturned (60,405)
Hearts of Iron IV (58,365)
Battlefield V (53,888)
Lost Ark (53,586)
EA SPORTS FC 24 (52,299)
Don't Starve Together (50,161)
Dead by Daylight (49,977)
Euro Truck Simulator 2 (49,950)
Red Dead Redemption 2 (49,839)
Sons Of The Forest (43,919)
VRChat (43,180)
Enshrouded (41,342)
Destiny 2 (40,710)
The Sims 4 (40,703)
Farming Simulator 22 (40,556)
Overwatch 2 (39,977)
tModLoader (38,034)
Cyberpunk 2077 (37,957)
Balatro (37,349)
Hero's Land (37,249)
Terraria (37,061)
Garry's Mod (36,357)
Left 4 Dead 2 (35,532)
Rocket League (35,071)
ARK: Survival Evolved (34,480)
Astral Party (34,330)
7 Days to Die (33,492)
Project Zomboid (33,455)
Myth of Empires (33,106)
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel (32,496)
Total War: WARHAMMER III (31,372)
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (31,267)
Geometry Dash (31,151)
Street Fighter 6 (30,531)
NBA 2K24 (30,363)
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (29,398)
Deep Rock Galactic (28,916)
雀魂麻将(MahjongSoul) (28,650)
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online (28,540)
Supermarket Simulator (28,371)
Valheim (28,066)
PAYDAY 2 (27,911)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (27,654)
THE FINALS (26,874)
Hunt: Showdown (26,757)
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (26,477)
MIR4 (26,407)
Governor of Poker 3 (26,307)
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (26,170)
Dying Light 2: Reloaded Edition (25,544)
RimWorld (24,356)
Phasmophobia (23,944)
Black Desert (23,505)
TEKKEN 8 (23,371)
Goose Goose Duck (23,341)
Europa Universalis IV (22,358)
ARK: Survival Ascended (22,098)
BeamNG.drive (21,747)
Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition (21,659)
Sid Meier's Civilization V (21,652)
Forza Horizon 5 (21,422)
Nightingale (21,237)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (21,210)
SCUM (20,605)
Brawlhalla (20,357)
Russian Fishing 4 (20,300)
Crusader Kings III (20,284)
Arma 3 (19,893)
Soundpad (19,829)
It Takes Two (19,798)
The Elder Scrolls Online (19,514)
Battlefield 1 (19,503)
The rapid growth of Steam's audience is not surprising, even with the many other digital platforms available for PC gamers. Valve's platform continues to break records at a steady pace and has recently hit another milestone.
According to SteamDB, Steam recently surpassed its all-time peak of concurrent users, recording 38,367,277 concurrent users on Sunday. At that time, 12,270,218 of those users were actively playing games, while the rest were using the platform for non-gaming purposes.
Earlier this March, Steam hit a new record of 36 million concurrent users, up from over 33 million just a few months earlier, clearly showing that the platform's audience is steadily growing. This suggests that Steam will likely cross the 40 million mark soon, which will be another remarkable milestone.
Still, this is a clear sign that PC gaming continues to grow, especially at a time when console manufacturers are trying to sell us $700 consoles just for slightly sharper background models—something most people wouldn't even notice (apologies to those who make those models, you do great work, but I don't need crystal-clear quality). It's unclear why people chose this random week in September to play more video games (maybe it's the grey weather here in the UK), but I'm sure Valve doesn’t mind.
Overall, things seem to be going well for Valve right now. Its latest game, Deadlock, is still performing well on Steam. Earlier this month, the game reached a peak player count of 171,490, and currently, around 150,000 people are playing it. This suggests Valve is on track for continued success.