Steam breaks another user record

Steam has broken its concurrent user count once again, this time topping 30 million users on the platform at once.

Back in January, Steam hit 28.2 million users after a huge population spike throughout the pandemic era. In the two years from February 2020, the record rose from 18.8 million to 20 million, then 22 million, at Covid-19 began to take hold. Since then, numbers have continued on an upward trend, but this is the first time that the 30 million mark has been exceeded.

Quite why those numbers have proceeded to climb so fast over the past couple of years is likely due to a mix of factors. Increasing numbers of people staying at home during multiple lockdowns is likely to have lead to an uptick in the number of players on Steam, but an increasing number of games - including PlayStation exclusives - is likely to have helped. The increasing rollout of the Steam Deck, allowing players to use the platform from anywhere, is also likely to have contributed, albeit in a relatively limited way.

Interestingly, only a relatively small proportion of those logged into Steam when yesterday's record was set were actively playing. Around 8.5 million were in-game, with even fewer mid-match - CS:GO and Dota 2, two of Steam's biggest games, count players as those currently in the game's client the same as those currently competing. That proportion is still up on January's figure, where somewhere between seven and eight million of those 28 million were playing as the record was set.

Wondering what all those players might have been enjoying? Our list of the best free Steam games is a pretty good place to start.