Steam is still the king of online video game storefronts, and it sets a new record just to prove it.

STEAM STILL HAS THE MOST USERS

Steam has just set a new record for most concurrent users on the platform. With a peak of 26,401,443, more players were connected to Steam at one point yesterday than there ever was on any platform, ever. This beats a record that the platform set a mere month ago. A new Chinese-only game called Tale of Immortal may have helped Steam achieve this record, which had over a hundred thousand players gaming at launch.

Steam has long held the distinction of being the most popular platform for digital PC games. The 2020 global pandemic forced a lot of people indoors. Because of this, more people returned to playing or started playing in 2020. Around this time of year last year, Steam held a record of over 18 million concurrent players. The big growth over the past year shows how people have been turning to gaming as a form of stress relief during the lockdown.

TRUMPING THE COMPETITION, EPIC GAMES STORE

Steam's dominance in the market has been undisputed for the most part of the past decade. But over two years ago, a contender to the throne rose. Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, made their own storefront, the Epic Games Store (EGS). Over the past two years, EGS has been challenging the reign of Steam. However, in spite of the growing player base of EGS, Steam remains to be on top.

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At the end of 2020, both platforms released figures on their user base. While EGS reported an increase of 52 million new users in 2020 alone. But among its now 160 million-strong user base, only 56 million can be considered as monthly active users.

Contrast these figures to Steam's. The platform reports that it has more than double EGS' figures, with over 120 million monthly active users with over a billion total accounts registered on the platform.