Steam is kicking off the new year right by gathering more concurrent players than it’s ever had before. The popular digital storefront has been the favored marketplace of a lot of PC gamers for years now, and despite increasing competition from the Epic Games Store, it’s still going strong. The website is currently holding its traditional Winter Sale, which offers discounts on numerous titles throughout its massive library. The sale lasts until January 5th.
These deals are certainly paying off, too. The website’s previous record for most concurrent players was set in mid-December; a few weeks later, the company had its most successful Christmas Day of all time. It’s a good time for video games thanks to the widespread lockdowns imposed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Gamers who were prevented from spending time with their loved ones this holiday season had more than enough extra time on their hands to indulge in Steam games, and as tragic as it is, this turned out very well for Steam.
And it looks like no one made resolutions to swear off PC gaming, because Steam is only getting better as it rockets into the New Year. SteamDB (via PCGamesN) has recorded a brand new world record for most concurrent players, which was recorded around ten hours ago at the time of this writing. This new record sits at 25,410,080 users who chose to ring in the new year by turning to the online video game platform. Based on how things have been trending, though, there’s no telling how long this record will last.
It’s good to see Steam thriving. A lot of fans rely on it for their video games, and it’s been seeing some fierce combat from the Epic Games Store. The rival platform has been snagging major exclusives for years now, and it’s currently celebrating its own winter sale by giving fans functionally infinite $10 coupons; when a player makes a purchase with their coupon, it’s automatically replaced by a new one, which will itself be replaced when the player buys something else. This unending cavalcade of coupons will last until the sale ends on January 7th.
As aggressive as Epic Games is getting with its deals, it doesn’t seem likely that it’ll dethrone Steam any time soon. This holiday season has been huge for the platform, and there’s no telling where it’ll go next. Promotions like the Winter Sale and the even bigger Steam Summer Sale keep fans coming back time and time again to fill their libraries with PC games at remarkably low prices, and it’s good to know that Steam is still around to provide them.
