Steam shows public player count stats, meaning we can see what games are most popular. These are the top 10 highest player counts ever recorded on Steam.
From classics like Counter-Strike and PUBG, to major AAA releases like Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring, there is a wide mix of games that attract hundreds of thousands, and even millions, of players to jump in at one time.
The top played games are always changing, but over the years, some games on Steam have peaked at massive live player counts, with the highest ever at over three million. In 2024, a surprise new entry has joined the list too with the overnight success of Palworld.
To keep track of the records, these are the top 10 highest peak player counts on Steam, of all time.
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10 highest Steam player counts
| Rank | Game | Release date | Peak players | Date achieved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PUBG | December 21, 2017 | 3,527,248 | January 13, 2018 |
| 2 | CS:GO | August 21, 2012 | 1,818,773 | May 6, 2023 |
| 3 | Lost Ark | February 11, 2022 | 1,325,205 | February 12, 2023 |
| 4 | Dota 2 | July 9, 2013 | 1,295,114 | March 6, 2016 |
| 5 | Palworld | January 19, 2023 | 1,284,221 | January 21, 2023 |
| 6 | Cyberpunk 2077 | December 10, 2020 | 1,054,388 | December 10, 2020 |
| 7 | Elden Ring | February 24, 2022 | 953,426 | March 5, 2022 |
| 8 | New World | September 28, 2021 | 913,634 | October 3, 2021 |
| 9 | Hogwarts Legacy | February 10, 2023 | 879,308 | February 12, 2023 |
| 10 | Baldur’s Gate 3 | August 3, 2023 | 875,843 | August 13, 2023 |
Data via SteamDB (January 2024).
Most popular Steam game ever
PUBG still holds the record for the highest peak player count of any game on Steam, with 3.5 million. This was achieved at the height of PUBG’s popularity in 2018.
However, since then, its average player count has dropped significantly. Although it’s still a popular game, it lags far behind Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which is almost always the most-played game on Steam every day.
CS:GO is over a decade old, but still setting records.
Other games that make up the top five in average players are Dota 2, Apex Legends, and GTA V. All of these games regularly maintain over 200,000 average players, even at quieter times in the day.
Most popular single-player Steam game
Of course, all of the games mentioned above are live-service, multiplayer games (GTA V has GTA Online), so what about single-player experiences on Steam?
The highest player count achieved by a single-player Steam game is Cyberpunk 2077. While the console version had a troubled launch, PC players enjoyed a much smoother experience, and it’s the only single-player game to reach over 1 million concurrent players on Steam.
Cyberpunk 2077 holds the record for single-player games on Steam.
Next was Elden Ring, which despite a massive launch, just failed to crack the 1 million players mark, and it was followed by Hogwarts Legacy, with just under 900,000.
Remember, these are only players on the Steam platform — so players using other launchers like the EA App, Xbox App, or playing on console, aren’t counted.
We will keep this list updated as new games release and try to beat the records.