According to tracker SteamDB, the number of concurrent users on Steam surpassed 18.8 million earlier today, peaking at 18,801,944. The previous record was 18.5 million just about two years ago, on January 6, 2018; as SteamDB points out, this concurrent user record does not match the in-game player count record, which was about 5.8 million today compared to 7 million two years ago, about 1.2 million less. The previous record was boosted by the huge player count of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. The cause of the current peak is unknown, but the peak period coincides with peak play times for all of Steam's top games.

2019 was a breakout year for Steam, with some major changes to the client and interface; Steam has seen massive growth over the past decade, and the consistent rise of the Chinese market has made Chinese the new most popular language on Steam. Valve is looking to bring Steam to more platforms, including Chromebooks. (The platform's appeal is such that EA Games, which withdrew its games from Steam in favor of its own Origin platform, is coming back. This is despite the fact that competitors are trying to steal market share from Steam. If you're not familiar with Steam's 15-year history, might we recommend this feature? I might, and I will.

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