No Man's Sky hits 98,000 players on Steam, highest player count since launch

The latest free Voyagers update helps ignite No Man's Sky 24-hour player count to the highest point since the game's release.

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Hello Games just released the new huge Voyagers expansion for No Man's Sky, and interstellar space adventurers are returning to the game en masse to check out the update. The influx of players is so large that Sean Murray took notice; No Man's Sky hit a 24-hour peak of 98,285 players on Steam on September 1, which is second only to the massive 212K players that the game achieved at launch.

The reason for this massive spark in players is two-fold. No Man's Sky is currently on sale for $24, sweetening the allure of jumping into the game; and the Voyagers expansion was so substantial that it attracted both new and returning players. Voyagers essentially lets players create and build their own custom starships while also commanding a crew with other players, adding a new level of online interactivity within the game.

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For a game like No Man's Sky that offers free updates and doesn't charge for big expansions like Voyagers, the player count is more representative of buzz and excitement around the game rather than a total indication of newly-sparked sales; it's hard to say how many of these users had already owned the game versus those that recently bought it.

No Man's Sky's playerbase on Steam rose nearly ten-fold since before the launch of Voyagers compared to the numbers after launch, and so far it looks like this newfound momentum could carry the game into the holiday season.