PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has been breaking records ever since it was launched in March on Steam, and now, it has set the all-time record for the most number of players on a game at the same time.
The milestone is made more impressive by the fact the multiplayer shooter is not yet finished, with the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds full release date pushed back from September to the fourth quarter.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Keeps Breaking Records
An Aug. 1 report revealed that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds had reached a peak player count of 481,291 players at the same time, which is the highest number ever achieved by a non-Valve game on Steam. There was an assumption, however, that the multiplayer shooter will not catch up with peak player counts set by DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive any time soon, as the two Valve games are heavily promoted on Steam.
However, by Aug. 27, a report claimed that the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds peak player count reached almost 880,000 users, the second highest in Steam history and beating the peak player counts of DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive over that weekend. Again, there was an assumption that it would take time for the game to break the highest-ever peak player count on Steam of almost 1.3 million users, set by DOTA 2 in March.
Less than a month later, just several days after PlayerUnknown himself Brendan Green revealed that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds sales had reached 10 million copies, the game has done the unthinkable. It has set an all-time Steam peak player count record of 1,348,374 players, beating DOTA 2 and taking over the proverbial throne on Valve's PC game platform.
From an unfinished game, the latest achievement of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds makes it the undisputed king of Steam.
What Now For 'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'?
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has seen a meteoric rise in player count ever since it was launched in March, and six months later, the shooter has now beaten DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in terms of popularity on Steam.
Breaking the Steam peak player count record set by DOTA 2 was the ultimate target, and now that it has been achieved, what might come next for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds?
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will likely set the bar even higher in terms of its peak player count, as developer Bluehole Studio keeps on working on the game in preparation for its full release within the year. Its next target, according to Green, is reaching the insane 100 million active users a month of the world's most popular MOBA, League of Legends.
More importantly, however, is that an Xbox One version of the multiplayer shooter is coming soon, with no PlayStation 4 version announced yet. Microsoft is likely hoping that its massive popularity on Steam will translate to the Xbox One, and help improve sales for the Xbox One S and the upcoming Xbox One X to allow the consoles to better compete with the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
