Steam hits a record 39 million concurrent users as Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals continue to pull massive crowds
Dec. 8, 2024Gaming’s very own Barbenheimer
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Gaming kinda has its own Barbenheimer phenomenon going on this weekend as bothMarvel RivalsandPath of Exile 2’s early access are drawing in a record number of people onto Steam.
Steam has been steadily breaking its own concurrent user record all year as 33 million of us logged ontoValve’s storefront at the beginning of the year, shortly before 37 million gamers gamed (or just browsed) at the same time during the tail end of summer. Now, that record has been pretty neatly smashed sinceSteamDBestimates that around 39,200,000 people were live at the same time earlier today.
That whopping crowd was drawn in by the usual suspects with Counter-Strike 2 steadily floating above a million concurrent players all by itself, while Dota 2, GTA 5, PUBG, and Rust all had hundreds of thousands of people jumping in over the weekend. This specific bump may have been thanks to a brand-new duo, however.
Marvel Rivals already had one of the biggest free-to-play launcheson the platform’s history, and that winning streak continued into the weekend as the new hero shooter’s 24-hour peak hit 450,000.Path of Exile 2 was also a huge deal the minute it launched, but it’s since continued to skyrocket, and has even broken the 530,000 concurrent player barrier - rare territory for any game.
Is 40 million concurrent players possible by the end of the year? Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the only properly massive game left on the schedule, but I still wouldn’t put it past us, especially as the holiday season properly gets going and millions of more people need an excuse to ignore their families.
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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.
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