Steam reaches 40 million concurrent players for the first time.

Steam has reached a significant milestone in its journey by registering over 40 million concurrent users. While this number does not indicate that everyone is playing at that moment (in reality, over 12 million were active in games), it represents a remarkable growth since its inception. In the last couple of hours, the platform hit an impressive peak of 40,270,997 users. Most of these users are browsing the store or engaging in activities that do not necessarily involve gaming, but there are still millions of people participating in some of the most popular titles.

Among the most played games, Counter-Strike 2 stands out with nearly 1.3 million active players, while over a million users are immersed in Monster Hunter Wilds. These two games lead the list, with Dota 2 in third place with just over 600,000 players. The popularity of Steam is partly due to the large number of games that daily surpass the million-player threshold, which explains its ongoing success. Even Amazon, a retail giant, has acknowledged Steam's supremacy, stating that its size was not enough to challenge its dominance.

Currently, the Steam Next Fest is in full swing, offering players various demos to try for free. This event presents an excellent opportunity to explore new genres without significant financial commitment. Additionally, Steam is known for its massive sales, allowing users to acquire titles at affordable prices if they know how to take advantage of the deals.

The Steam Deck, in the portable device sector, has also strengthened Valve's position, consolidating a robust platform that seems to be on an upward trajectory.

In the context of improvements for the Steam Deck, a modder named SnooOranges3876 has introduced a free plugin called LetMeReShade. This tool allows players to adjust the graphics of their titles in real-time, enhancing the appearance and performance of games, which is especially useful for older titles. Available through GitHub, this plugin simplifies the complicated installation process that mods for ReShade often require, making it easier to customize games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Heavy Rain, among others.

On another note, The Sims and The Sims 2 collections are now available on Steam for $20 and $30, respectively, including all their DLC. They are also available in a bundle for a total of $40 in celebration of the franchise's 25th anniversary.