Steam, the well-known digital storefront managed by Valve, has achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 40 million concurrent users for the first time in its history. The surge in user activity was primarily driven by the successful release of Monster Hunter Wilds on February 28, which led to over 40 million players being logged online during the past weekend. This growth trend follows a previous record of 39.9 million users set earlier in February.
Steam Reaches 40 Million Concurrent Users
On Sunday, Steam recorded a peak of 40,270,997 concurrent users, shattering its previous user count records and marking a historic benchmark for the platform that has been in operation for 21 years. As reported by SteamDB charts, this figure includes 12,812,379 players actively engaged in games at that moment, further establishing a new record for the storefront.
The record was notably bolstered by the release of Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds. Launched across multiple platforms including PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X, the game achieved one million concurrent players on its very first day, quickly becoming one of the most-played titles on Valve’s platform.
Monster Hunter Wilds has outperformed the peak player counts of several popular games, including Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, and Baldur’s Gate 3. Currently, it ranks as the fifth most-played game on Steam, trailing only behind PUBG: Battlegrounds, Black Myth: Wukong, Palworld, and Counter-Strike 2.
Despite competition from other platforms, Steam continues to lead the market as the foremost PC games storefront, ahead of rivals like Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store. Earlier this month, Epic Games announced that its daily active users reached a peak of 37.2 million in 2024. It is important to note that this figure differs from the concept of concurrent players, which tracks the number of users online simultaneously.
In 2024, the Epic Games Store recorded an average of 31.5 million daily active users, while also marking the milestone of 295 million users within its platform over the past year.
