Steam shatters concurrent user record thanks to Summer Sale discounts

[midian182]

What just happened? We're in the middle of the Steam Summer Sale, and that means millions of people are logging into Valve's platform to buy games, many of which they'll never play. As such, Steam's concurrent user count has been broken once again, reaching a massive 36,928,521.

The annual Steam Summer Sale is one of Valve's biggest discount events, on par with the massive Winter Sale – check out some of the great deals on offer right now.

The big discounts have seen more people than ever before jumping onto Steam. As recorded by SteamDB, the concurrent user record was broken around 19 hours ago (at the time of writing) when 36,928,521 people were using the platform.

It's important to note that this figure covers people who were logged into Steam – not all of them were playing games. Around a third were actually in-game, the rest were likely browsing the store, talking to friends, etc.

The in-game concurrent record of 11,795,523 set on March 18 this year still stands, though it was almost broken yesterday when 11,711,482 people were playing Steam games at the same time.

The current Steam Summer Sale started on June 27 and runs until July 11, so there's still over a week left. There's always the chance that the concurrent user and/or in-game records could reach new all-time highs before its over.

Helping attract more people to the Steam Summer Sale is the new Deep Discounts section. As the name suggests, these are some of the biggest price drops on Steam right now, including 95% off Civilization VI ($2.99), and 90% off titles such as Castle Crashers, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Jurassic World Evolution 2, and Batman: Arkham Knight.

The sale is also a good opportunity for those who've been afraid to splash out on Elden Ring to try FromSoftware's game. Its 30% discount brings the price down to $41.99, and the very popular Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is also available (but not on sale as it's just been released).

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Steam shatters concurrent user record thanks to Summer Sale discounts

 

[Burty117]

I'm sure Techspot told me 10 years ago "PC gaming will be dead in 5 years" or "Streaming services will kill off PC gaming in 8 years".

It's funny getting old, you get to stick around and see if anyone made any good predictions, turns out, most of them are rubbish.

 

[dangh]

Not too surprising for a factual monopolist. But, still impressive.

 

[Burty117]

Not too surprising for a factual monopolist. But, still impressive.

If only there was some real competition...

 

[brucek]

Not too surprising for a factual monopolist. But, still impressive.

I don't remember hearing of Standard Oil having a lot of 95% off sales, but then again they were an actual monopoly.

When this consumer is tired of shopping Steam's sales, perhaps I'll check out Amazon Prime Day, and the next Epic Game Store sale, and the GOG one that often happens around the same time, etc. And if I ever finish all those games I bought at a few bucks each, maybe then I'll get around to writing the FTC to complain about what a raw deal I feel I'm getting as a PC games shopper.

 

[dangh]

If only there was some real competition...

unfortunately it's not '60s anymore. Steam rules for publishers are: you can't have other end price on a game published on steam on any other store front, and you cant have a sale on other platform unless matching steam price.
Steam is already using its position to dictate its rules to competing platforms to ensure they cannot offer a better value or publisher will be penalized. Thats why it is a factual monopoly.

I don't remember hearing of Standard Oil having a lot of 95% off sales, but then again they were an actual monopoly.

When this consumer is tired of shopping Steam's sales, perhaps I'll check out Amazon Prime Day, and the next Epic Game Store sale, and the GOG one that often happens around the same time, etc. And if I ever finish all those games I bought at a few bucks each, maybe then I'll get around to writing the FTC to complain about what a raw deal I feel I'm getting as a PC games shopper.

Does Standard Oil preventing transactions of third parties with other suppliers if not approved by them? And yes, today's corporations are very good at using its powers to ensure competition can't do anything.

Funny thing with consumer being tired with Steam sales to go gog or epic. Funny, because it is valve who decide what prices publishers can set on those platforms. And what timing. Just to ensure they can't offer anything better than Steam. That is exactly what monopoly is - and no worries, FTC will keep eye closed as long as US get taxes. I'd rather expect EU to bring that issue to light, but there is long queue of much bigger companies with similar definition of 'freedom'

 

[brucek]

Just to ensure they can't offer anything better than Steam.

I've seen you make this assertion repeatedly, but I know I've seen prices on EGS or Amazon or elsewhere that beat Steam's. I also see that GOG offer DRM-free versions, which is an important "better than Steam" consideration for me. EGS sales often feature a coupon mechanism that Steam doesn't have (each purchase gets you $10/$20 off the next purchase, etc.).

In trying to research this further just now, I found this (older) article claiming the Most Favored Nation provision that is maybe what you're talking about applies only to Steam keys sold on other platforms (which is not what say Epic is selling at all), and provides examples of games selling at lower prices elsewhere at the time:

Is Steam really conspiring to price fix?

Or are some lawyers 'on an expedition'?

newsletter.gamediscover.co

So it feels to me that you are misrepresenting what is actually going on but I'm happy to look at documentation if you have any - such as maybe the Steam Agreement you feel is requiring prices to be the same everywhere?

 

[Burty117]

unfortunately it's not '60s anymore. Steam rules for publishers are: you can't have other end price on a game published on steam on any other store front, and you cant have a sale on other platform unless matching steam price.
Steam is already using its position to dictate its rules to competing platforms to ensure they cannot offer a better value or publisher will be penalized. Thats why it is a factual monopoly.

This not only has never been true, there's plenty of developers out there talking about it, here's just a clip of one talking about it recently:

TLDR: Nothing stops developers from selling Steam Keys for whatever price they want.

 

[dangh]

This not only has never been true, there's plenty of developers out there talking about it, here's just a clip of one talking about it recently:

TLDR: Nothing stops developers from selling Steam Keys for whatever price they want.

that is not what im talking about. Valve have a price parity obligation preventing developer from listing their games on other platforms at lower price. They do not care about steam keys as it still is linked to steam, and I did not touch that subject whatsoever.

Steam owner Valve accused of ripping off 14m UK gamers

Legal claim alleges Steam's market dominance means consumers are paying too much for video games.

www.bbc.com

 

[dangh]

I've seen you make this assertion repeatedly, but I know I've seen prices on EGS or Amazon or elsewhere that beat Steam's. I also see that GOG offer DRM-free versions, which is an important "better than Steam" consideration for me. EGS sales often feature a coupon mechanism that Steam doesn't have (each purchase gets you $10/$20 off the next purchase, etc.).

In trying to research this further just now, I found this (older) article claiming the Most Favored Nation provision that is maybe what you're talking about applies only to Steam keys sold on other platforms (which is not what say Epic is selling at all), and provides examples of games selling at lower prices elsewhere at the time:

Is Steam really conspiring to price fix?

Or are some lawyers 'on an expedition'?

newsletter.gamediscover.co

So it feels to me that you are misrepresenting what is actually going on but I'm happy to look at documentation if you have any - such as maybe the Steam Agreement you feel is requiring prices to be the same everywhere?

that's a pretty new case which touches the issue directly:

Steam owner Valve accused of ripping off 14m UK gamers

Legal claim alleges Steam's market dominance means consumers are paying too much for video games.

www.bbc.com

"The claim - which has been filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, in London - accuses Valve of "shutting out" competition in the PC gaming market.

It says Valve "forces" game publishers to sign up to so-called price parity obligations, preventing titles being sold at cheaper prices on rival platforms."

I think that there are good enough arguments for judges to start the proceeding.
Valve contracts are nda so you wont find them on their webpage. Similarly to apple or google contracts and details. But I'm sure we will get more juicy details from his case very shortly.