After gaining players for 7 years, sci-fi colony builder RimWorld hits a new Steam record, nearing 100,000 concurrents thanks to an expansion so big it probably could've been a new game

If you like committing atrocities in The Sims and you're tired of twiddling your thumbs waiting for a new one to come out, you're in luck. RimWorld, a 2D colony simulation and survival game that just about any laptop can run, has just hit a peak concurrent player count seven years after it launched – all thanks to a new expansion that's so big it could have been a sequel.

Although RimWorld officially launched in 2018, it's been around for longer than that. The first alpha build came out in 2013. I remember booting it up during university lectures, making my pawns harvest organs instead of listening to film philosophy theories.

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In the interim, it's had several big, paid expansions that also came with free improvements for the base game and older packs. Each one caused a spike in players and led to an overall trend of a growing average, which is rare for a single-player game. This update has led to the biggest spike yet, with a new concurrent player record of 94,648, according to SteamDB. That's just under 2,000 shy of The Sims 4's 96,328 peak from 2022 when it went free-to-play.

The developers posted on Bluesky encouraging players to log on and get it over the 100,000 mark. "We've almost hit 100,000 players online at once... can we make it!? This is your sign to hop on RimWorld."

The update driving all this interest, Odyssey, adds a ton of stuff to the game, but the most-important thing is space exploration. Normally, you crash land and build a spaceship to flee the distant planet you find yourself on. That's how you beat the game. But now, space is just another place to explore, and there's a new endgame, too.

The quests the update adds take you deep into underground crypts and all the way up to space stations orbiting your rim world. You'll also be able to find the source of the mechanoid menace that threatens every colony at some point in your playthrough. It sounds like the toughest fight in RimWorld yet, so make sure you're very prepared before you try and take it on.

Or, check out the best simulator games you can play.