Steam Hits Five Million Concurrent Players

By Landon Robinson | 03 January 2012 | 10 Comments

Like most of the staff here at Inside Gaming, I spent my holiday break catching up on all the video games I’ve yet to finish from 2011, as to not backlog myself for the new year.

It would appear that I’m not alone, as Steam, the primary platform for accessing and playing PC games, has recently peaked at five million concurrent players, according to their stats page. In layman’s terms, Steam can expect upwards of five million active users in any single day. You might say, they’re really gaining STEAM.

More interesting though, is observing how much of the Steam audience has been affected by the introduction of Origin, EA’s new online game platform, and more importantly, direct competitor. While PC users are required to use Origin for popular titles like Battlefield 3 and the recently released MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, it would seem that many are not entirely hopping off the Steam bandwagon — not yet at least.

[via PC Gamer]

10 Comments

Posted by GRATZ STEAM on 03 January 12 at 8:57am

Gratz Gabe, now EP3!
Posted by Nick on 03 January 12 at 9:05am

I’m a heterosexual male and I would have go gay for Gabe Newell. He is a PC hero.
Posted by Chas on 03 January 12 at 9:29am

All I can say is that Origin is GOD AWFUL!!! So no chance im leaving my beloved Steam :)
Posted by Bull3t on 03 January 12 at 11:18am

Sad that i need origin to play BF3, i love steam. Meanwhile at Valve .. “Gentlemen, it is time to release Episode 3.”

PLEASE D:
Posted by erick on 03 January 12 at 1:59pm

wow it hit 4 million for the first time on september 4th
Posted by Matt on 03 January 12 at 2:18pm

I blame the success on the recent Steam holiday sale, and the hype surrounding it. Origin is hardly a competitor since it only has EA games. Honestly people who use Origin, will most likely be using it in tandem with Steam.
Posted by CoreyClarkYC93 on 03 January 12 at 4:26pm

I believe that not a lot of people are anti-Steam and pro-Origin :P
Posted by TheAnswer on 03 January 12 at 6:57pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbSQ8JbyQo8
Posted by LLama on 03 January 12 at 8:10pm

Why is there any surprise that people didn’t jump ship for origin? People only use Origin because they have to to play certain games. The issue is EA went about it like a whiny little bitch by not releasing their titles on steam as well. It was a huge mistake and its something they will learn eventually when Origin fails like its going to.
Posted by Aeph on 04 January 12 at 8:16am

Most people using origin are not doing so willingly.