Steam Starts 2021 Strong With A New Concurrent Users Record Of 25.4M

2020 was an excellent year for gamers, and especially Steam since it broke its concurrent record six times within the same year. The results haven’t changed in 2021, and Steam has kicked off strong, breaking its previous concurrent record of 24m users. As shown by SteamDB and the official tracker, the all-time peak was just 24 hours ago, with 25.4 Million concurrent players. Although these numbers sound fantastic for con-current users, we will still have to wait for the in-game player’s record of 8.1 million to be broken.

Usually, the number three and four spots are dominated by PUBG or Rust; however, this time, it was Cyberpunk 2077 with massive concurrent players just under 700K. It was then followed by Rust, Team Fortress 2, PUBG, and GTA V. Above Cyberpunk 2077 were Valve’s very own multiplayer titles, CSGO and Dota 2.

The gaming industry saw incredible growth in 2020. The lockdown has constrained individuals to sit at home and play games. We additionally need to consider that this is the Holiday Season across most nations, and there is a lot of vacations on-going. Moreover, Steam’s annual winter sale is also on the verge of ending, so I reckon many players are busy browsing their favorite games today. It would have been super interesting had there been a global tracker that would gather concurrent players across all platforms like PlayStation’s, Xbox, and Switch. This would have rather gave us a superior thought with respect to the enormous rise in gaming since a year ago.

Considering that there is a new COVID-19 strain plus many countries are planning to issue lockdowns. I won’t be too surprised that Steam will break its record once again like it did in 2020. Besides, there are also some great games coming in a few weeks, so let’s see how that plays out.