Steam exceeds 37 million concurrent user count for the first time in its history, meaning 37,242,724 people were connected to Valve's digital distribution platform at the same time.

The new record was set on August 25, which represents a steep climb in concurrent users since the beginning of the year. The number of people actually in a game concurrently has seen a noticeable rise as well. According to SteamDB, the numbers jumped from 10.8 million in January to more than 12.5 million now.

Though these huge jumps in numbers are somewhat regular on Steam, this particular peak coming in the later half of summer — which is not exactly a time of peak gaming interest — is quite interesting. The peak concurrent user count ran past 36 million back in March and pretty close to break 37 million in June, before backing down to mid-34 million peaks through most of July.

However, it's pretty clear this time around that the launch of Black Myth: Wukong on August 19 is what led the charge for the new record. In just a week since its release, it has quickly topped the charts, cementing itself as the second-most played Steam game of all time, with a peak concurrent player count of more than 2.4 million. It broke previous records held by games including Palworld, CS:GO, and Lord Ark, and it’s now second only to PUBG Battlegrounds.

Those numbers are clear signs of the importance of China to Steam's future growth, and it seems like a new record of 40 million concurrent users may be possible by the end of the year.

Jarif is a contributor at The Daily Esports.