Steam, Valve’s game distribution platform, has shattered records with over 37 million concurrent players, largely driven by the blockbuster title “Black Myth: Wukong.”
According to Valve’s latest announcement, the new record of 37,242,724 active accounts was set on August 25. Previously, Steam had hit 36 million in March and 37 million in June, but is currently at 29 million.
PC Gamer has described the significant surge in simultaneous players on Steam during this period as “unusual,” given that it is the end of summer—a typically off-peak season for gaming. The arrival of Black Myth: Wukong is causing users to flock to Steam,” the site commented.
Upon its release on August 20, Black Myth: Wukong immediately created a sensation. The game from Chinese developer Game Science quickly attracted 1.3 million concurrent players within hours of its launch.
According to SteamDB, the game reached 2,223,179 players in a single day, making it the largest game launch of 2024 and placing it second on Steam for concurrent players, just behind PUBG with 3.2 million.
On August 20, Steam’s statistics revealed a data bandwidth of 28 TB per second during the game’s launch, with 82% of traffic coming from the East Asia region.
Black Myth: Wukong, or Hắc Thần Thoại: Ngộ Không, is an action RPG based on the classic novel “Journey to the West” by Wu Cheng’en. Developed for PlayStation 5 and Windows, and soon to be available on Xbox, the game allows players to control a character named Thiên Mệnh Nhân, a “descendant” of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. Players battle various enemies, transform into monsters and insects, and utilize their powers to triumph. Alongside its engaging storyline, the game is praised for its stunning graphics and cinematic sequences.
Steam, owned by Valve Corporation (USA), launched in 2003 as an online game distribution platform, digital rights management system, and social networking service. The application allows users to install, manage, and automatically update games, as well as connect to servers and communicate with other players.
As the largest PC game distribution platform, Steam is estimated to hold a 75% market share, according to IHS Screen Digest. In 2017, Steam’s total game sales reached $4.3 billion, representing 18% of the global PC game market, as reported by Steam Spy. By 2021, the platform hosted over 34,000 games and boasted more than 132 million active monthly users.
