THE CRUNCH
Steam has broken its all-time concurrent user record for the second time this year. On Sunday the platform counted 43,505,724 users online at once, both in-game and out, the highest figure in the store's 23-year history. The number of players actually in games also set a record, topping 14 million.
It follows a previous peak of more than 42 million concurrent users in January, so Valve's platform has outdone itself twice in 2026. Curiously, the new record landed shortly after the Autumn Sale ended rather than during it. The weeks since have seen several popular launches, most notably the worldwide release of free-to-play MMO Aion 2, which peaked at 397,905 concurrent players.
Elsewhere on the charts, Deadlock, Valve's yet-to-be-officially-announced MOBA-shooter hybrid, jumped to 262,145 peak concurrent players after a major update. All that traffic feeds Valve's bottom line: recent estimates put Steam revenue at $15bn (about £11.10bn) by September, with Forza Horizon 6 the platform's biggest new release this year by revenue.