According to SteamDB, the number of online users on Steam hit a new high for the first time this year, surpassing 40 million to 40,270,997. The number of in-game active players also broke a new high, with a new record of 12,727,475, surpassing the 12,270,218 on September 22 last year – less than three months after the last time it topped 39 million.

In 2024, Steam will surpass 34 million on March 2, 35 million on March 10, 36 million on March 17, nearly 37 million on June 30, 37 million on August 25, 38 million on September 22, and 39 million on December 9, setting a new high for the seventh time for online users and six times for the number of in-game active players. After three months of waiting, Steam has finally reached the milestone of breaking 40 million.

Monster Hunter is indispensable

This new high was driven by the launch of Monster Hunter: Wildlands on February 28, which peaked at 1384608 concurrent players on Steam in the last 24 hours, second only to CS2. The game has been at the top of the Steam best-selling charts for weeks on end.

Capcom has just announced that Monster Hunter: Wildlands has sold more than 8 million copies within 3 days of its release on February 28, 2025.

Like previous installments in the series, Monster Hunter: Wildlands will bring new monsters and event missions to players through the free Title Update. The first Title Update is expected to go live in early April, with the addition of the Water Moon Dragon and the Rally House.

However, the praise rate of the work is only 53.43%, and poor optimization has become a high-frequency word in the comment area.

The capital market reacted strongly

Steam's milestone event sparked a strong response from the capital market. In early trading on March 4, a number of game ETFs rose by more than 1%, led by individual stocks such as Youzu Network and Kaiying Network, showing that investors' confidence in the game sector has rebounded.

AVIC Securities Research Report emphasizes that AI technology is accelerating the transformation of the game industry - applications such as intelligent NPCs and UGC editors have entered the landing stage, and will reconstruct the game development model and user experience in the long run. At the policy level, the accelerated approval of domestic game versions and the introduction of policies to encourage entertainment consumption have also injected new momentum into the industry.

It is worth noting that Chinese Simplified Chinese users accounted for as much as 50% of this breakthrough, and Chinese players have become the main force of Steam's active growth.

This phenomenon is closely related to the maturation of the domestic game market: the pursuit of high-quality triple-A titles, the localization of the Steam community, and the increasing international influence of domestic games such as Naraka: Bladepoint have jointly promoted the rapid expansion of China's user base.

According to the analysis, China has become one of the most important incremental markets for Steam, and its payment ability and community activity continue to attract the attention of developers around the world.

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