Steam Breaks 7 Million Concurrent Users

That is up 1 million from this time last year.

[kevnb]

Wow

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO O OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" - gfwl.

[3-4-5]

Those Steam Sales.

* End of Console gen + Summer/Autum Sales = Great success!

People had a bit of time away from their other older games to experience what STEAM had to offer.

There is an opening between Console Generations where this window of opportunity for PC gaming opens up.

It happens every 5-7 years or so and gives PC gaming a nice boost.

It's the yin & yang of gaming really. I love it.

[kingduqc]

went up to 7.2m. Kinda surprising.. I remember not so long ago there was under half the number of people.

[bayport]

They deserve it.

[porkChop]

Likely due to the Autumn sale. Steam has nowhere near that amount of players on a daily basis.

[Megaton]

If by "nowhere near" you mean 5.5m+, yes. Monday through Saturday usually hit 5.5m+ and Sundays always go over 6m. They've been teetering close to 7m the past few Sundays. Sale pushed them over.

[MAJ0R]

Anyone know the comparison to the max amount of PSN/XBL concurrent users?

[Evil_Abed]

PSN buckles when a million or so new consoles log on so I don't think it can handle anything past 3

[DeadlyFire]

The most I have ever heard of PSN/XBL Concurrent users around is 2.x million. So I suspect the usual is around 2-3 Million for consoles. Although that was years ago. It could be higher. Considering the numbers though I suspect 7 million could be possible on PS3/X360 install base. Its just never been spoken of as being that high. The new console era likely has buckled their servers with a sharp increase due to launch. So its hard to take note of it. Steam puts its numbers right up on its front page. So its easy to see them. Sony/Microsoft have their numbers concealed.

[Megaton]

No, PC gaming is dead. Bloggers have been telling me so for the last decade.

[trickman888]

hehe

[megadrivesonic]

why is pc gaming dead? you have no proof of this.

[Irishguy95]

Bloggers ARE PROOF

:P

[SirBradders]

Proof you say proof 'head explodes'

[MadLad]

I know, right?
I don't even know why I built my rig. There's absolutely no support for it as a platform and there's absolutely nobody online to play with, ever. /s

[Incipio]

Steam, despite its issues, is probably my favorite platform. I'll be happily investing in a Steam Box. The bang for your buck is incredible.

[combatcash]

@Incipio,

Just build your own pc it's much better quality when you build it yourself :)

[Incipio]

I'm well aware of the costs and quality of a custom built PC.

What I'm also aware of is that A) Valve is working closely with hardware providers and B) SteamOS is Linux-based and is going to be designed to operate with much less overhead than a traditional Windows gaming desktop.

Seems like an in-between offering when compared to consoles and desktops.

Controller and TV-based but also usable with keyboard and mouse, as well as an operating system prioritized for gaming yet capable of handling rich media content. Also, instant access to thousands of games already available.

No drivers to screw around with, no messy console firmware updates (steam updates take about a minute or less), no fees for online play, no large operating system running in the background, well-established and mature community, mods, multiple configurations available based on budget, well-designed proprietary controller...it's like the best of the PC and console world. What is there to not like about it? lol

[Rageanitus]

PC gaming is Dead /s

[Codeman420]

damn u beat me to it

[-wub-]

Consoles, PC, handhelds, and mobile are all growing every day. Gaming isn't dying anytime soon on any platform.

[gamernova]

PC gaming for the win!!! We are only getting stronger :)

[tee_bag242]

Yup. Free online and cheap as games. I think I have over 100 games by now (half multiplatform), all for the price of around 2 console games. Winning!!!

I have to laugh when people say PC gaming is expensive. I don't mind paying for cutting edge hardware when I can save so much money on software.

[combatcash]

@tee_bag242

Very true, but not only are you saving on software but almost all of the games are compatible with any new hardware updates, no need to pull out an old system to play them.

[curtis92]

Glad this is happening. I will always have a soft spot for PC gaming. When it's doing well, everythings doing well.

[ginsunuva]

Playstation and PC master races!

[MidnytRain]

There can only be one.

[MadLad]

I sort of see me being the PC + Nintendo console, while grabbing the other two sometime down the road, personally.

[evilsooty]

Same here. I am a PC gamer primarily, but have a soft spot for Nintendo so own a 3DS which has loads of great games (in the middle of Fire Emblem: Awakening at the moment). The Playstations and Xboxes just don't do anything I can't do on the PC better.

[zeal0us]

Glorious God Gamers are 1,000,000,000,000 better than your master race.

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photo...

[Evil_Abed]

Lol please do not promote your kind unduly. PSN can't even handle half those users concurrently.

[AD705]

I'm one of those users :)! Steam is probably one of the best things to ever happen to gaming period!

BTW how many concurrent users are on PSN and XBL?

[BrianG]

Would assume less since the install base of consoles vs PC's is skewed in the favor of PC, since almost any PC can play games.

Let's just celebrate the accomplishment at hand :)

[AD705]

I shall

but in all seriousness how and where do you find out about concurrent users on psn and xbl.

[BrianG]

Honestly I don't know of a source for that info. I assume only MS and Sony would know that, and unless it's an amazing stat, they probably won't release it.

[DeadlyFire]

Console = 80 million units sold roughly for PS3/X360 each.
Steam itself has 65 million active users. The 7 million concurrent users is likely due to the annual sales blitz they have going on.

A fraction of that number has the actual console's XBL/PS+ subscription.
I believe last time I heard it was 48 million on XBL silver/gold plans and 110 PSN accounts with an unknown number of PS+ users. Considering families that share a console. My PS3 holds 3 PSN accounts itself.
http://www.theverge.com/201...

[tee_bag242]

The number of steam users dwarf the consoles - Michael Pachter has the numbers which I can't remember but it's significant. Yet the console online users are generally considered more active.

[ChrisW]

Basically any PC can at least play games from Steam...

There are some games so simplistic in graphics, a 10+ year old computer should be able to handle it.

[TheOneWhoIsTornApart]

Steam is the greatest thing to happen to pc gaming in a long time in my opinion. I am mostly a console gamer and I just got the PS4 but I love the ease of use and sales from Steam and have bought a ton of games from the Autumn sale this year. I value both PC and Playstation consoles equally for gaming for different reasons.

[Debaitable]

[Serious] What is this compared to consoles?

[piffyd]

xbox live was crapping itself when it hit 2 million at once

consoles=dinosaurs in the tar pits

[CrossingEden]

Well 80 million ps3s and 80 million xbox 360 and 100 million wiis. :/

[Pandamobile]

Yeah, those are mighty large install bases, but concurrent users is a whole other ballgame. I'd be surprised if there was more than 1,000,000 concurrent Wii users. The online is dead anyway and most of the games are single player or offline multiplayer.

Xbox 360 and PS3 concurrent users are likely pretty high, but are likely to still be well behind Steam unless you're counting Netflix and other media to count as "online usage".

[ChrisW]

Remember, concurrent users for consoles means that all they have to do is turn on their console while being connected to the Internet.

[AceBlazer13]

My steam account is signed in all the time, would that count as a concurrent user?

[The Great Melon]

Same here. Steam is my main means of communication with my friends. Some people live on Facebook, I live on Steam.

[dcj0524]

That's bad for your lungs kid lol

[The_Truth_24_7]

Lol. Only?

[CrossingEden]

Good for Steam, now if only they would be more supportive towards mac users. ._.

[DoctorJones]

Lol, gaming on a mac :D

[WeAreLegion]

I haven't logged off of Steam in probably weeks. I'm not sure it's fair to compare this to consoles...though I'm fully aware PC gaming is bigger than ever.

[Pandamobile]

Why not compare it? It's just a statistic.

[JasonKCK]

They compare everything else on N4G. There should be no exceptions.

[Rzep]

Isn't Steam like 7 or 8 years old? So a million a year, not bad.

[Irishguy95]

7 Million "CONCURRENT" users. 7 million people on at once. There are alot more than 7 mill steam users. Over 50 mill steam accounts

[Pandamobile]

It's at 65+ million accounts last I heard.

[urwifeminder]

The way mods are delivered takes the head aches out of installs very well done and implemented it certainly is the best for value steam continues to deliver finally got skyrim at the amazing price of $9 lol .

[tee_bag242]

Yes steam is awesome. Just picked up Payday 2, Farcry 3, and Contagion for chump change.
No time to play all these games anymore.
BTW, Payday 2 is soooo underrated.

[Jovanian]

steam will always be better than PS+ and XBL simply because free is always better than paid. PSN used to be sorta on par with steam, but then came that unwarranted subscription fee locking away online multiplayer with the PS4.

[annus]

PS+ isn't to bad. I returned to it after a few years of not paying and I got about $400 AUS worth of free games in the first few days (transition of both months), which is pretty damn good for the $70 I paid for the year.

There is no doubt that steam is far superior when it comes to sales though, I've spent far to much on games I will most likely never play just because they were heavily discounted.

[Jovanian]

Well the thing about those 'free' games is that you only really end up playing like a small handful of them, and their value definitely is not $400. That's retail value.

Some of the games you probably own. The rest are bargin bin games that are almost always discounted. how about I keep my 50 dollars, and I choose which games I want to play and get them on sale for like 10 dollars, instead of Sony choosing for me a big handful that you don't really own after your subscription ends for the low low price of 50 dollars

[Perjoss]

This is not including gamers that play stuff like WoW and LoL, they are both games with millions of concurrent gamers and they do not go through Steam.

I think it would be safe to say you can easily add another 5 million from those 2 games alone? please correct me if I'm wrong.

[AlexFili]

If they keep selling games like Borderlands 2 for £5 they're going to get tons of users

[Section8]

This doesn't count since many people have multiple accounts for steam.

[AD705]

Many people have multiple psn and xbl accounts as well.

[Section8]

And those figures don't count either because of that.