Most played games on Steam 2021, by peak player count

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive topped the 2020 list for peak numbers of concurrent players on the online gaming platform Steam. The first-person shooter video game has continuously ranked among the most popular games on Steam since it's release in August 2012. Second-ranked New World is an open world MMO PC game released by Amazon Games after several delays. The game peaked at 913 thousand concurrent players.

Is Steam keeping pace with the console giants?

The fight for supremacy between PC and console gamers is an eternal one. However, it seems that Steam, the main online PC gaming platform, is still able to keep up with the console giants. In September 2021, Steam registered a record 26.09 million simultaneous users at peak time, impressive considering the figure stood at 16.54 million just two years before. One of the main advantages of Steam is the staggering library of games available to users, and it seems that players are not afraid of splashing the cash to play their favorite games.  

Battle of the Battle Royale games

While PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds reigns supreme in the Steam universe, it has stiff competition in the form of its battle royale brother, Fortnite. First released in July 2017, and not available on Steam, free-to-play Fortnite very quickly amassed millions of players and soon became a worldwide hit. Having scooped the award for Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2018, it seems that Epic Games’ smash hit shows no signs of slowing down. But with new players, such as Apex Legends, constantly entering the game, will Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds be able to hold on to their loyal fan bases?