20-year-old Valve title breaks all-time peak player count

Valve's Half-Life 2 has broken its peak player count record! The game amassed about 64,085 active players between November 17 and November 18, 2024, according to the SteamDB website. Coming from a game that was released in 2004, this feat is indeed astounding. Moreover, Valve announced a huge update to celebrate the game's 20th anniversary which helped in boosting the numbers.

This article will dive into Half-Life 2's return to life for thousands of players and what inspired such a spike.

(Note: All the figures mentioned in the article are taken from Steamdb.info)

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The Valve title Half-Life 2 gets over 60,000 players in 24 hours

Valve was confident that the Half-Life 2 20th anniversary celebration would see a hike in the active player count. The developer released a special update of the game where Episode 1 and Episode 2 were merged with the base game.

It was also made available for free on Steam from November 16 to November 18, 2024. Furthermore, an iconic documentary detailing the Half-Life journey was also released to add to the hype.

During the aforementioned two days, the active player count went up from a few thousand to about 61,000 players within 24 hours. Furthermore, on November 17, 2024, the count increased to about 64,085 players which is the peak count in the last 18 hours as of the time of writing.

The current active player count on November 18, 2024, stands at about 30,777. This number may go down with time, however, the game made history on its 20th anniversary showcasing its popularity in the gaming community.

Additionally, with the sequel reportedly in the works, this could just be the start of the series' revival. While nothing official has been reported, as per Gabe Follower's findings, Valve has been secretly working on Half-Life 3 for the past three years.

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