Skyrim Is Still Popular: Helps Steam Set New Record

Despite its age, Skyrim is still popular.

PC Gamer reports that Steam set a new peak concurrent user record on January 1, 2015 (you can read the full article here). More than 8.4 million people were using Steam at around 11:30 AM. This is an insane number of concurrent gamers, but what really stands out is that Skyrim was the fifth most popular game being played at the time — this despite that fact that Skyrim recently celebrated its third birthday.

Skyrim Is Still Popular

Skyrim’s popularity should come as no surprise to its legions of fans, but even I had to do a double-take when I saw the numbers. Here are the top games that were being played on the record setting day:

[table]Game, Number of Players

Dota 2,875K

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, 360K

Team Fortress 2,89K

Football Manager 2015,75K

Skyrim,66K

[/table]

Reasons For Skyrim’s Popularity

Skyrim is still popular for all the reasons I outlined in an earlier article titled Do People Still Play Skyrim? Yes, And Here’s Why:

Active modding community,
Robust character creation and leveling system,
Open world concept and immense world to explore,
Graphics, music and immersive qualities.

As far as Steam’s record setting day is concerned, I should probably add a 5th reason for its popularity: incredible price. During the holiday season, a Steam-activated copy of Skyrim went on sale for as low as $4 at one point.

Four bucks is an absolute steal for Skyrim, and my guess is that a new crop of gamers helped propel Skyrim up the charts on January 1 — both newbies and console gamers looking to explore the world of PC mods. This is entirely speculation on my point, but I can say with certainty that the Skyrim Fansite’s traffic spiked significantly around the time of the Steam sales, with an increased number of gamers searching our site for popular “how to” articles (Help Choosing Your Skyrim Character Name, The Best Skyrim Character: Warrior, Thief or Mage?, etc.). This increased traffic leads me to believe that a large number of gamers have discovered (and rediscovered) the phenomena known as Skyrim.

Final Thoughts

Skyrim is an amazing game — one that helps define a generation. Despite its age, the recent Steam record helps prove the game is still being played by large numbers of gamers. What are some reasons why you feel that Skyrim is still popular? Please share your thoughts and opinions in the Speak Your Mind section below. Until next time, fellow travelers!