Valve's Steam has hit a new record as the multiplayer platform recently recorded more than 10 million concurrent users.
Steam was launched in 2003, and on June 14, it was the first time in 12 years that the number of concurrent users surpassed its previous record of 9.5 million users.
"Our on-going goal with Steam is to improve the service we offer customers. We believe that by sharing this data, we'll be able to spot problems earlier, improve the Steam service more efficiently, and ultimately build better products and experiences," reads the stats page of Steam that shows the number of concurrent users.
The stats page also shows the top games being played by current users. Dota 2, which reached a peak of 778,251 concurrent users, is the top game on Steam. The second position is occupied by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which had 590,008 concurrent users.
Team Fortress 2 and Grand Theft Auto V have been played over 68,000 and 65,000 times more, respectively.
ARK: Survival Evolved, Clicker Heroes, Football Manager 2015, Sid Meier's Civilization V, Garry's Mod and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are some of the other most popular games played on Steam. Arma 3 and Payday 2 have dropped down from the top 10 most popular games on Steam.
Experts believe that the upsurge of users on Steam is a result of the summer sale that is on offer. The cost of many games on Steam's library have been reduced, which may have attracted many gamers to register and play top games.
In early June, Steam also started a new refund policy that may have attracted more games to try the platform.
"You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam — for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it," per the Steam support page.
Steam suggests that the latest refund policy only applies if users claim the refund within two weeks and with less than two hours of playtime.
