Steam has doubled its user base in 5 years. The latest record is more than 41 million concurrent players

Steam continues to be the leading platform for buying and playing PC games, and it just had its most popular period ever with a record number of players online.

Despite many attempts by other companies, Steam remains the dominant platform for PC gaming. Many gamers even use the name ‘Steam’ as a general term for PC gaming itself.

This platform continues to grow in popularity, as shown by its consistently high user numbers. Just last weekend, over 41.6 million people were using Steam at the same time. This is the third time this year a new record has been reached, and Steam has frequently broken its own records in the past.

At the beginning of 2024, Steam reached a peak of 33.6 million concurrent players. This is a significant increase from 2020, when the platform had just under 20 million players. Essentially, Steam gained around 8 million players in just a year and a half, more than doubling its player base compared to five years prior.

It’s worth noting that a higher number of ‘peaks’ in user activity doesn’t necessarily mean more actual players. Plus, Steam has a lot of automated bots, especially those used for trading, which also contribute to those numbers. Despite competition from other platforms, Valve and Steam remain the dominant force in digital distribution. While competitors have significant resources, they continue to lack Steam’s robust features and are actually losing ground with each new Steam update.

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2025-10-15 11:02