What you need to know
- Steam recently hit a record for concurrent users at 30,032,005.
- Usage figures for the platform have steadily gone up since launch but took a sharp upward turn when the global pandemic started in 2020.
- The previous record of 29,986,681 was set in March 2022.
- The number of concurrent Steam users generally rises during winter in the northern hemisphere, so it's likely another record will be set in the near future.
If you were on Steam over the past weekend, there's a good chance that you helped the platform hit a new record. The platform had a 24-hour peak of 30,032,005 users between Saturday, October 22, 2022 and Sunday, October 23, 2022. That's the highest that Steam has ever seen within a 24-hour period and shows that the steady rise of Steam users doesn't seem to be slowing down.
SteamDB figures show that the number of concurrent Steam users has gone up quickly since the start of the global pandemic (via Tom's Hardware). Steam usage was rising before the pandemic hit, but it took a significant turn upward in March 2020, which was when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
User numbers bounce up and down a bit each month, but the overall trend is clearly upward. There's a good chance that Steam will continue to break records for concurrent users over the coming months. As GPU prices drop and hardware like the Steam Deck becomes more common, more people will likely try out the popular gaming platform.
The previous record for concurrent Steam users was 29,986,681. That mark was set at the end of March 2022.
Generally speaking, Steam's concurrent user count drops in the summer and goes up in cooler months (referring to seasons in the northern hemisphere). We'll have to wait to see if that trend continues, but if it does, we'll likely see several new high water marks this winter from Steam.
