Steam, the leading digital game distributor for PC players, has shattered its concurrent user record yet again, surpassing 40 million players for the first time. This milestone was reached over the weekend, coinciding with the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds on February 28, 2025. According to SteamDB, the platform logged an unprecedented 40,270,997 simultaneous players, eclipsing its previous record of 39.9 million set in February 2025.
The concurrent user record on Steam, often seen as a barometer for Valve's platform success, has seen consistent growth, breaking records nearly every month since May 2024. The peak has escalated from 35.5 million to 40.2 million users in just over six months. Notably, this figure includes idle players—those with Steam open but not actively engaged—yet the number of users actively playing games also set a new record, rising from 12.5 million to 12.8 million.
Steam experienced surges in player peaks throughout 2024, with records broken in March and July. The latest peak is attributed to the release of Monster Hunter Wilds, which saw a 24-hour peak of 1.38 million concurrent users. Other games like Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, Dota 2, and Marvel Rivals also achieved significant 24-hour peaks with 1.7 million, 819,541, 657,780, and 268,283 users, respectively.
Despite its popularity, Monster Hunter Wilds received a 'mixed' user review rating on Steam, prompting Capcom to release official guidance addressing PC performance issues. Capcom has also announced preliminary details for Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 1, which will introduce an endgame social hub for players.
To enhance your Monster Hunter Wilds experience, check out guides on what the game doesn't tell you and a comprehensive breakdown of all 14 weapon types. Additionally, our ongoing Monster Hunter Wilds walkthrough, a multiplayer guide to playing with friends, and instructions on transferring your Beta character are available. IGN's review of Monster Hunter Wilds awarded it an 8/10, praising the game for refining the series' mechanics while noting a lack of real challenge.
