Steam sets new record with 30 million users online at once

Significantly higher than other, previously reported numbers.

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Steam has broken its prior records, and today on Sunday, October 23rd has hit a total of 30,012,957 users online at the same time. This is courtesy ofSteam’s own charts, thoughSteamDBscores a bit higher: 30,032,005.

That’s roughly the population of Ghana, the 48th most populous country in the world.

Steam has been rising for a long time, but exponentially so since 2020, when Covid lockdowns spiked numbers in big waves. While it’s impossible to tell without a thorough study, those gaming habits have stuck with some far longer than might be expected.  Steam’s rapid growth in recent years far outstrips its past growth: For comparison, it took 14 years for Steam to grow to a 15 million concurrent user peak in 2017, but only 5 years for the next 15 million.

Back in January 2021 Steam broke past the 25 million mark following a year of spikes and new records. At the time I swore off writing more stories about Steam records, we’d been writing them all year and I was sick of it. It wasn’t news anymore, just a given. “With this barrier cracked, it seems like Steam’s numerical exploits are becoming more ‘inevitability’ than ‘news.’ I’ll get back to you when Steam reaches something like 30 million players,“I said.

True to my word, here I am. We’re at 30 million afteranotherfewyearsofgrowing highs. (All reported by my colleagues, I note. If I sound sanctimonious that’s because I am, and you would be too if you remembered to do that.)

And, well, there you have it. A remarkable new high for a section of our hobby.

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Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he’s not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

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