Team Fortress 2 is quietly becoming more popular than ever on Steam

Ask someone to list the current most played games on Steam. Most would think Counter-Strike or even Lethal Company. They likely wouldn’t say Team Fortress 2, but it’s now sitting comfortably as the fourth most-played game in January.

Most gamers will recognize Team Fortress 2’s classic characters, simple game modes, and iconic maps. Its humble beginnings lie in the Team Fortress mod to Quake in 1996, and since its 2007 launch, it has performed consistently well for developers and publishers Valve.

However, a peak of 215,509 players in December 2023 is unexpected. At a 69.63 percent increase from November, it has skyrocketed back into peoples’ lives with little to no publicity. Although these numbers are just shy of TF2’s all-time high of 253,225 concurrent players—achieved back in July 2023—December’s average concurrent players hit 122,114.4. This blows any previous average since the 2012 Steam launch out of the water.

So, why has TF2 ended up with so many players so long after its debut? From 2007 to 2024, the game has gone through 786 updates. One of these is the likely magnet attracting swarms of gamers back over the holiday season, with plenty of fresh treasures in store.

Dec. 7 saw Valve bring all the festive joy to TF2 in Santa Clause fashion, carrying the gifts of new maps, cosmetics, and a “Happy Smissmass” event in his sleigh. The seasonal event brought a total of 10 new community maps: Snowtower, Krampus, Haarp, Brew, Hacksaw, Turbine Center, Carrier, Galleria, Emerge, and Camber. They also added daily stockings containing “goodies for good little Mercenaries,” which will be available through to Jan. 7.

The time of year and an apparent increase in gaming nostalgia may also be at play. TF2 enjoyed an increase in players over the December holidays in 2022, 2020, and 2019, although not quite to the extent seen in late 2023.

Perhaps TF2 has benefitted from developers encouraging us all to reach for old comfort games. After all, many who started playing the game as children can now finally enjoy it over the holidays without parents complaining they spend too much time in front of a screen.

Whether you are a seasoned TF2 fanatic or feeling as though its resurgence has flown under your radar, it is comforting to see one of Valve’s biggest classics enjoy a new surge of popularity. Whether it’s their community-orientated seasonal event or Valve riding the wave of nostalgia carrying us from 2023 to 2024, it might be time to turn on your PC and return to the fabulously cartoonish world of Team Fortress 2.