Deltarune keeps outdoing itself. Each time a grain of sand falls in the hourglass since Chapter 5 released this morning, the episodic RPG breaks its personal best concurrent Steam player record.
Most recently, the Undertale companion game by prodigious developer Toby Fox hit an all-time peak of 291,816 players about four minutes before I started writing this. But please don't grow attached to that number – Deltarune first toasted its Chapter 5 launch with about 200,000 concurrent players, and the party has been bubbling closer to 300,000 all day.
Now, if Deltarune's concurrent player count eventually soars past 300,000, I wouldn't be surprised – which is in itself surprising, considering the fact that the game's peak a week ago was closer to a more modest 8,000, according to SteamDB.
That said, fans have been sitting with whiteboards and red string all year, scribbling detailed theories on what Deltarune Chapter 5 might entail based on Fox's teases, and I'm sure that self-feeding frenzy has contributed to why Steam players are sprinting to the game now.
No, not sprinting. Fans are swarming. Deltarune's constantly growing peak Steam player number is nearly triple its previous high of 133,930 concurrent players a year ago, which is when Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 came out. Before that, Fox was on a three-to-four year release schedule, with Deltarune initially releasing in 2018 and Chapter 2 rolling out in 2021. So I think it helps that Chapter 5 instead took just a year to follow Deltarune's other recent installments – it builds momentum for the game. Fans also believe the content of 3 and 4, in particular, helped establish Deltarune as a rich narrative experience worth freaking out about online.
So here we are. Deltarune's big and getting bigger.
Best controller: GameSir G7 Pro
Best headset: SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless
Best monitor: LG UltraGear
Best laptop: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
Best keyboard: Corsair Vanguard Pro 96
Best mouse: Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro
Best chair: Fractal Refine
