Steam Hits 40M Concurrent Players with Monster Hunter Wilds Launch

Steam, the leading digital game distributor for PC gamers, has shattered its own concurrent user record, reaching an unprecedented peak of over 40 million players. This milestone was achieved over a weekend that coincided with the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds on February 28, with Steam registering 40,270,997 simultaneous users, surpassing the previous record of 39.9 million set in February 2025.

According to SteamDB, Steam's concurrent user record, often seen as a benchmark for the success of Valve's platform, has been broken nearly every month since May 2024. The concurrent peak has impressively risen from 35.5 million to 40.2 million in just over six months. While this figure includes idle players—those with Steam open but not actively using it—the number of users engaged in gameplay has also set a new record, increasing from 12.5 million to 12.8 million.

Throughout 2024, Steam experienced surges in player peaks, breaking its record twice in March and again in July. The latest peak is largely attributed to the release of Monster Hunter Wilds, which alone saw a 24-hour peak of 1.38 million players. Other titles like Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, Dota 2, and Marvel Rivals also contributed significantly, with 24-hour peaks of 1.7 million, 819,541, 657,780, and 268,283 players, 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 revealed early details 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 resources on what the game doesn't tell you, a comprehensive guide to all 14 weapon types, and our ongoing Monster Hunter Wilds walkthrough. We also offer a multiplayer guide to help you play with friends, and instructions on transferring your character from the open beta 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."