Talk about the mother of all user data spikes. Steam has reached a new peak concurrent user count of 22 million online about a few hours ago. At this point in time, there are now 22,678,529 users on Steam.

This is definitely made possible due to the number of people social distancing and quarantining themselves during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The top games during the peak were Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and Football Manager 2020. Even in times of turmoil, football will always find a way to get into people’s hearts.

I predict that these numbers are going to go up as long as countries all around the world are resuming their lockdowns and restricted movement, at least until all of this is over. Whether publisher/distributor Valve has the manpower to keep the network going remains to be seen. As big as they are, they may not have the resources to keep at it for the coming months if the pandemic becomes the norm.

On the half glass full side, I’m enjoying my time with these free indie demos brought up on this feature here. Do give them a whirl!