At the end of November Steam reached a new concurrent user record of 7,190,520 but that has been surpassed once again thanks to offers and a freebie.
According to the Steam stats page, on the 29 December the concurrent Steam user base reached 7,679,599 which is a new record. With so many PC gamers off on holiday and the Steam Winter sale going great guns with fantastic bargains it’s no huge surprise.
The Steam sales are what PC gamers watch out for and when they do go live there’s a significant increase in gamers connected to the service. Games that have been proving popular over the holidays have included DOTA 2 and now Left for Dead 2 which was given away for free by Valve a few days ago. Other notable mentions include TF2, Football Manager 2014 and the recently released early access for DayZ.
I think it’s safe to assume that ever time a Steam sale comes around a record is going to be broken, especially if they are going to give away free stuff.