Video game digital distribution service, Steam broke its record for concurrent active users for the second weekend in a row.
The PC game platform recorded over 22 million active users on 21st and 22nd March 2020. This trumps previous records of 19 million and 20 million it had set last weekend, 14th and 15th March 2020.
The record of active players was, however, a little shy of its previous record of 7.2 million set in January 2018. About 7 million of those active players were concurrently playing games.
The surge comes as people all over the world have been encouraged to work from home to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. A lot of people are turning to video games in order to utilize the spare time.
Steam began to record an upward trend in January 2020, coinciding with self-isolation measures in China due to the coronavirus crisis. As of 2nd February 2020, Steam surpassed its previous record of 18,537,490 users set in January 2018. At the time, it surpassed the record by 300,000 to peak at 18,801,944 players. Steam, however, surpassed the 20 million mark for the first time.
Also Read:
– Microsoft’s Xbox Series X Versus Sony’s PlayStation 5 Compared
– GameStop Is Closing All Its US Stores, Will Now Process Orders Online
– PlayStation Slashing Prices Off Games To Stay Keep Beating The Market
The most popular games on steam include multiplayer shooter game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2, Rainbow Six: Siege and Grand Theft Auto (GTA) V. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive also became only the third game on Steam to reach one million concurrent players on 14th March 2020.
Physical game sales have also tripled in the UK with retailers attributing the increase to consumers preparing to stay at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
More than 475,000 physical games were sold in the UK in the past week.
For your daily dose of tech, lifestyle and trending content, make sure to follow Plat4om on Twitter @Plat4omLive, on Instagram @Plat4om, on LinkedIn at Plat4om, and on Facebook at Plat4om. You can also email us at info@plat4om.com. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE.