Valve breaks concurrent Steam user record again

Valve’s gaming platform Steam surpassed 26.4 million concurrent users, breaking its previous record of 25.4 million. 

The COVID-19 pandemic caused thousands of people around the world to stay home and find new hobbies to entertain themselves. This led to many new users on Steam, and the concurrent user record was broken several times throughout 2020. 

The record was most recently broken on Jan. 2 when 25.4 million players were online simultaneously, according to Steam Database. But players are still spending more time at home as the coronavirus is still impacting everyday life globally, and the record was broken again this morning. 

Steam Database reported 26.3 million users online at once, which is significantly higher than the previous record. The website also reported 621,000 new users in January, a two-and-a-half percent gain. Steam has had steady growth since August of 2020, and the trend does not appear to be changing. 

Eurogamer reported Steam achieved over 120 million active users in January, which is higher than Xbox Live and PlayStation Network’s monthly users. Thousands of players dived into the PC world in 2020, and the Steam platform has continued to grow in popularity. 

Video games will continue to grow in popularity as players around the world are stuck at home.