Steam shows public player count stats, meaning we can see which games are most popular. These are the top 10 highest player counts ever recorded on Steam.
From classics like Counter-Strike and PUBG to major AAA releases like Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring, the top ten list covers a wide range of genres.
The top games are always changing, but over the years, some games on Steam have peaked at massive live player counts, with the highest ever at over three million. In early 2024, a surprise new entry joined the list – the overnight success of Palworld.
Now in mid-2024, we see yet more surprises. An inconspicuous clicker game called Banana reached the top 10, and Black Myth: Wukong shot up to second place on its first day.
These are the top 10 highest peak player counts on Steam of all time.
10 highest Steam player counts
| Rank | Game | Release date | Peak players | Date achieved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PUBG | December 21, 2017 | 3,257,248 | January 13, 2018 |
| 2 | Black Myth: Wukong | August 20, 2024 | 2,358,580 | August 20, 2024 |
| 3 | Palworld | January 19, 2024 | 2,101,867 | January 27, 2024 |
| 4 | CS:GO | August 21, 2012 | 1,818,773 | May 6, 2023 |
| 5 | Lost Ark | February 11, 2022 | 1,325,205 | February 12, 2023 |
| 6 | Dota 2 | July 9, 2013 | 1,295,114 | March 6, 2016 |
| 7 | Cyberpunk 2077 | December 10, 2020 | 1,054,388 | December 10, 2020 |
| 8 | Elden Ring | February 24, 2022 | 953,426 | March 5, 2022 |
| 9 | Banana | April 23, 2024 | 917,272 | June 20, 2024 |
| 10 | New World | September 28, 2021 | 913,634 | October 3, 2021 |
Data via SteamDB (August 2024)
Most popular Steam game ever
PUBG still holds the record for the highest peak player count of any game on Steam, with 3.25 million. This was achieved at the height of PUBG’s popularity in 2018.
However, since then, its average player count has dropped significantly. Although it’s still a popular game, it lags far behind Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which is almost always the most-played game on Steam every day.
Palworld’s shock success meant that CS: GO (now CS2) dropped to third in the list of all-time peaks. Palworld is also available on Xbox and Microsoft Store, so the true total will have been even higher when including all platforms.
Other games that make up the top games in average players are Dota 2, Apex Legends, and GTA V. All of these games regularly achieve over 200,000 average players at peak times.
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Most popular single-player game on Steam
Of course, all of the games mentioned above are live-service, multiplayer games (GTA V has GTA Online), so what about single-player experiences on Steam?
The highest player count achieved by a single-player Steam game is Black Myth: Wukong. For a long time, it was held by Cyberpunk 2077 but finally on August 20, 2024, Black Myth: Wukong beat it.
Before Black Myth: Wukong came around, Cyberpunk 2077 was the only single-player game to crack the 1 million mark, but Game Science’s debut has since shattered that record – eclipsing 2 million.
Right under Cyberpunk are two other single-player games, Elden Ring and Banana. Elden Ring is considered FromSoftware’s magnum opus and gained its record upon release.
Banana on the other hand is a clicker game, where players just click on a banana as a number goes up. It’s technically a single-player game, although just not in the way the others are.
Remember, these are only players on the Steam platform — so players using other launchers like the EA App, Xbox App, or playing on console, aren’t counted.
We will keep this list updated as new games are released and try to beat the records.
Popularity doesn’t always mean best though – for that, check out our list of the best 100 games of all time.
