Steam hit its all-time concurrent user peak over the weekend

Steam smashed its all-time record for concurrent users over the weekend with a 24-hour peak set at 20,313,451, according to data from the PC gaming platform’s website. It’s the first time Steam has ever had more than 20 million users online at once; nearly 6. 4 million of them were actively playing a game. The previous record wasn’t particularly long-standing, and Steam outdoes itself pretty often — the 19 million mark was first reached just over a month ago.

But the milestone is notable, as is the speed with which it was reached. There weren’t really any notable Steam releases last week, so it’s probably safe to say that the spike in users staying home and logging on was sparked by the fact that it is generally not advisable to go out in public if you can help it right now. Players mostly stuck to old favorites; Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hit an all-time peak of 1,024,845 simultaneous players to become the most popular game over the weekend, while Dota 2 and PUBG followed with 701,632 and 515,050 players respectively. The coronavirus spread is not showing signs of slowing down in much of the world, so Steam is likely to see further leaps in usage.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio just announced an executive order banning nightclubs, movie theaters, and concert venues from opening as of this Tuesday morning, for example, while restaurants will be limited to take-out and delivery.