Steam sets new record for concurrent players

Steam set a new record for concurrent players on December 8, with 39,205,447 people logging in and playing games. This broke the previous record of around 38 million set in September 2024, which probably means it's only a matter of time before Valve's PC gaming platform hits 40 million concurrent players. Will it be another three months before the record is broken again? Time will tell.

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Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch has been a massive hit on PC, image credit: Grinding Gear Games.

The new record was set because some major PC releases dropped simultaneously, including Path of Exile 2, Marvel Rivals, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Path of Exile 2, the highly anticipated action-RPG sequel launched into Early Access, hit an impressive 578,569 peak concurrent player count on December 8, while Marvel Rivals' big free-to-play 1.0 launch hit 480,990 concurrent players. Both games are proving to be popular on the streaming platform Twitch, where they are climbing up the charts.

In addition to new titles, existing PC powerhouses like Counter-Strike 2, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and DOTA 2 saw massive player counts on December 8. Valve's games continue to be popular on the platform, including classics like Team Fortress 2. Here's a look at the current top 25 most-played games on Steam as of December 11, 2024.

1. Counter-Strike 2
2. Marvel Rivals
3. Path of Exile 2
4. DOTA 2
5. Call of Duty
6. Banana
7. Rust
8. Grand Theft Auto V
9. Delta Force
10. Baldur's Gate 3
11. Throne and Liberty
12. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
13. Crosshair X
14. Team Fortress 2
15. Stardew Valley
16. War Thunder
17. Apex Legends
18. Football Manager 2024
19. DayZ
20. Sid Meier's Civilization VI
21. Warframe
22. Destiny 2
23. EA SPORTS FC 25
24. Factorio
25. PAYDAY 2

As you can see, multiplayer games, especially competitive shooters, dominate the list, but it's great to see a single-player game like Baldur's Gate 3 still up there. It'll be interesting to see if Steam manages to crack the 40 million concurrent player record before the end of the year as more people take time off and inevitably fire up a game to play.