Wildly popular
Steam is the world’s most popular destinations for PC gaming, so if a game makes it to the top of the platform’s charts, that’s saying something. Recently, Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds became Steam’s No. 5 most popular game ever based on peak concurrent users, surpassing a whopping 1.38 million people playing the game at the same time.
It was an astonishing result, but there are still four games that have previously reached higher peaks. In this post, we’re rounding up the top 20 most popular games of all time on Steam based on peak concurrent users. The data was supplied by SteamDB.
There are some important things to know about this list. It includes both free-to-play and paid games, along with the non-traditional “game” called Banana where players continuously click the banana until they get a new one. Also of note is Call of Duty HQ–this is a single launcher that houses multiple Call of Duty games, including Black Ops 6, Warzone, and older titles.
Another thing to know is that the numbers in this list do not represent a game’s entire reach, as the figures pertain only to Steam games on PC. Plenty of the games on this list are available via other PC storefronts, on console, or Game Pass. Finally, the nature of concurrent players means it’s only a snapshot of one moment in time. The peak gaming hours in North America and Asia, for example, do not overlap.
Finally, you might expect GTA 5 to show up on this list, but it does not, despite being one of the best-selling video games in history. That’s because GTA 5 on PC via Steam recently split into two games–GTA V Legacy and GTA V Enhanced. The peak concurrent records for those games are 364,548 for GTA V Legacy and 187,059 for GTA V Enhanced. Combined, this would amount to more than 551,000 people, which would squeeze into the top 20.
20. Terraria – 489,886
Record achieved on May 16, 2020.
19. Call of Duty HQ – 491,670
Record achieved on November 20, 2022.
18. Valheim – 578,569
Record achieved on February 21, 2021.
17. Path of Exile 2 – 578,569
Record achieved on December 8, 2024.
16. Apex Legends – 624,473
Record achieved on February 18, 2023.
15. Marvel Rivals – 644,269
Record achieved on January 11, 2025.
14. Goose Goose Duck – 702,845
Record achieved on January 12, 2023.
13. Baldur’s Gate 3 – 875,343
Record achieved on August 13, 2023.
12. Hogwarts Legacy – 879,308
Record achieved on February 12, 2023.
11. New World: Aeternum – 913,634
Record achieved on October 3, 2021.
10. Banana – 917,272
Record achieved on June 20, 2024.
9. Elden Ring – 954,426
Record achieved on March 5, 2022.
8. Cyberpunk 2077 – 1,054,388
Record achieved on December 10, 2020.
7. Dota 2 – 1,295,114
Record achieved on March 6, 2016.
6. Lost Ark – 1,235,305
Record achieved on February 12, 2022.
5. Monster Hunter Wilds – 1,384,608
Record achieved on March 1, 2025.
4. Counter-Strike 2 – 1,818,773
Record achieved on May 6, 2023.
3. Palworld – 2,101,867
Record achieved on January 27, 2024.
2. Black Myth: Wukong – 2,415,714
Record achieved August 22, 2024.
1. PUBG – 3,257,248
Record achieved on January 13, 2018.