Steam Hits 40 Million Players: Monster Hunter Wilds Boosts Record

Steam, the go-to digital game distributor for PC gamers, has shattered its own concurrent user record, surpassing 40 million players for the very first time. This monumental milestone was achieved over the weekend, perfectly aligning with the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds on Friday, February 28. Steam recorded an astonishing 40,270,997 simultaneous users, eclipsing the previous record of 39.9 million set in February 2025.

According to SteamDB, Steam's concurrent user record, often viewed as a key indicator of Valve's platform success, has been broken nearly every month since May 2024. The concurrent peak has skyrocketed from 35.5 million to 40.2 million within just over six months. Notably, this figure includes idle players—those with Steam open but not actively engaged. However, the number of users actually playing games has also reached a new high, climbing from 12.5 million to 12.8 million.

Throughout 2024, Steam experienced significant surges in player peaks, breaking its record twice in March and again in July. The latest peak is largely attributed to the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds, which saw a 24-hour peak of 1.38 million players. Other popular titles like Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, Dota 2, and Marvel Rivals also achieved notable 24-hour user peaks of 1.7 million, 819,541, 657,780, and 268,283, respectively.

Despite its popularity, Monster Hunter Wilds has received a 'mixed' user review rating on Steam, prompting Capcom to release official guidance addressing PC performance issues. Additionally, Capcom has unveiled preliminary information about Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 1, which will introduce an endgame social hub for players.

To enhance your Monster Hunter Wilds experience, explore our guides covering what the game doesn't tell you, a comprehensive breakdown of all 14 weapon types, an in-progress walkthrough, a multiplayer guide to team up with friends, and instructions on transferring your beta character to the full game.

IGN's review of Monster Hunter Wilds awarded it an 8/10, stating, “Monster Hunter Wilds continues to smooth off the rougher corners of the series in smart ways, making for some extremely fun fights but also lacking any real challenge.”