Spiking 10% over last weekend’s record-breaking high, Steam has reached a new peak concurrent user count of 22 million online. With 22,678,529 users this record is yet another for Steam in the past weeks as millions of people practice social distancing, isolation, lockdown, and quarantine under the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Like previous spikes, this spike came at around 15:00 GMT: Mid-morning for the United States, afternoon in the UK, and peak night gaming hours in China.
The in-game concurrent players at the time wasn’t a record, though it’s close at over 7 million. The top games at the time of the peak were Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2, Steam’s major free games. These were followed by Football Manager 2020, a popular series currently enjoying a free period until March 25th. (We quite liked it in our review.)
It’s hard to tell if Steam will hit a definitive peak during this period, or if it will begin to suffer network issues. With more of the world likely to enter lockdowns in the coming weeks, there’s not much doubt that records will continue to break. It’s more that we’re all wondering when the end will come.