Steam hits new record – 5 million concurrent users

More than five million people simultaneously logged on to the core PC games platform Steam at the start of 2012 – an all-time record for concurrent users for its vendor Valve.

The landmark was reached on January 2nd, driven by the momentum of a well-publicised Christmas sale and the success of new games Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3.

Bethesda’s Skyrim title is, at the time of going to press, the most played title on Steam with about 50,000 concurrent users. Modern Warfare is third, with 27,500, in amongst the platform’s evergreen titles Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2.

Steam launched in 2003 and has since accumulated some 35 million active users, with about 1,500 games available through the service.