Strange invasion on Steam. Forgotten games attracted huge number of players

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Some intriguing game titles like Alien vs Predator and Left 4 Dead have experienced a sudden surge in popularity on Steam, leaving us puzzled as to what could be causing this unexpected influx that even dedicated gamers can’t fully account for.

Alien invasion of fans?

The unusual spike in player count was initially observed in the “alien” shooter game, particularly its 2010 version. Prior to last week, there were approximately 700 players on dedicated servers concurrently, occasionally reaching over 2,000 users. However, on July 12th, the peak for AvP was more than doubled, and today, a staggering 14,900 people were playing the game simultaneously (according to SteamDB).

The enigma appeared to be swiftly unraveled, at least on the surface. Online community members (specifically Reddit users) discovered that enthusiasts of the “Aliens vs Predator” game had arranged a late-night gaming event. This was partly done to assist novice players in reaching their objectives, but also to enjoy themselves in this long-forgotten title.

It appears that the case has indeed been closed – a passionate fan initiative sparked memories of an old game title. However, there are two significant exceptions. The “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem – Night” event took place on July 12th, and it surpassed the peak of 5,000 Steam users playing simultaneously. Interestingly, tonight’s gameplay managed to shatter this record almost thrice over.

Thousands of “players” and no signs of life

Additionally, it’s important to note that the Aliens vs Predator game isn’t unique in experiencing a sudden influx of players on its dedicated servers. This was also observed in various other titles such as the original Left 4 Dead, Dino D-Day, Monday Night Combat, and even the now-unavailable demo of STCC on Steam.

As a gamer, I found it quite peculiar that, across multiple games, a surge of players started simultaneously – it was July 13th, around 2 PM Pacific Time to be exact. Nowadays, the peaks don’t seem to align in such a synchronized manner anymore.

It’s important to note that while Dino D-Day has seen a significant rise in popularity, it’s puzzling that this hasn’t led to a significant increase in players on servers not specifically dedicated for the game. Last week, the game’s peak player count was only 37, which is surprisingly low given that the number of players on dedicated servers more than quadrupled over the weekend, from under 500 to between 2,500 and 14,200. This anomaly is even more noticeable because there doesn’t appear to be any heightened activity on the Dino D-Day forum on Steam.

Bots, pirates, aliens?

It appears there’s a theory that instead of real players, it could be bots flooding these nearly abandoned game servers. One might wonder why such bots would target niche games with no marketable items on Steam. It seems as though only the user in question has brought up this issue, as neither the gamers nor the developers have publicly acknowledged or commented on these mysterious incursions.

It has been observed by players over time that they can access dedicated servers for games they haven’t purchased, such as Aliens vs Predator and Left 4 Dead, through Steam or Reddit. Interestingly, it seems these files are included in the standard developer tools made available to all users of Valve’s platform.

This point is significant as we previously discussed the intriguing prevalence of Spacewar. It appears that, based on Steam data, this game was allegedly utilized by pirates to operate unauthorized copies of it.

As a gamer, it’s intriguing to ponder if the sudden surge of “gamers” in these specific titles is coming from the same place. Frankly, I can’t quite figure out why someone would choose these games for such activities all of a sudden. It’s still unclear which release could have drawn this massive wave of virtual game hackers. Strangely enough, nothing new dropped on July 13 or even July 12, but on July 11, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 hit the shelves (and let’s not forget about the highly anticipated RimWorld: Odyssey expansion, and a few games in Steam Early Access).

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2025-07-15 10:32