Steam breaks its record of simultaneous users… again

Steam once again surpasses its own record for simultaneous users, demonstrating the robust health of this famous platform.

Steam doesn’t get tired of breaking records. Especially when it comes to users connected at the same time. Or at least that’s what it seems if we stick to the constant stream of news on the subject, which once again reaches our eyes.

According to SteamDB, the platform that constantly tracks all the numbers on Steam, on Sunday, March 17th, a peak of simultaneous users was reached on Steam with 36,294,835 simultaneous users. However, there’s a catch. Only about a third of them were actually playing something, all the others simply had the client open, or were making purchases taking advantage of the current spring offers on the platform.

The previous record of the platform, however, did not happen long ago either. The previous peak occurred on March 10th, reaching the chilling figure of 35,067,133 simultaneous users. Something that makes us suspect that the platform will not take long to surpass its own record again.

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Were you going to buy Helldivers 2? Be careful, there are scammers on Steam

Helldivers 2 is being a success, something that some unscrupulous individuals are taking advantage of to try to scam people who want to play it.

Helldivers 2 has been a monumental success. Despite no one betting on it, Arrowhead Games Studios have managed to create a game that is already one of the big hits of the year. Even using a graphics engine that has been unsupported for many years. A feat that no one expected, probably not even the people at the studio themselves. This has led to some unscrupulous individuals trying to take advantage of its success.

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For a few hours, on August 29, 2024, it seemed like Helldivers 2 had a 75% off offer. And another one for 50%. And also the game at its base price, 39.99 euros. That is, for a few hours there were three different entries of Helldivers 2 on Steam, causing some users to feel very confused about it. As noted by the well-known influencer Wario64 on Twitter, this was an attempt to scam and take advantage of the game’s success. Because the two Helldivers 2 with an associated offer were, in reality, other games pretending to be Arrowhead’s in order to scam users.

Modifying metadata on the Steam page is very easy, as long as the game is already approved. Reviewing the information on Steamdb, it is possible to see that these two entries were for games called DO NOT SMILE and Figurality. Despite the name change, it is possible to see their original names and the changes made over time, both coinciding with the fraud.

Figurality modified all its data to copy Helldivers 2 at 3:53 in the morning on Thursday, February 29th, while DO NOT SMILE would do it at 4:45 on the same day. Although we do not know if it was a coordinated scam, or if the developers of DO NOT SMILE saw what Figurality did and decided to take advantage of the situation, Steam would take approximately four hours to remove both pages from the store.

While this type of scams is not common, they could happen again in the future. The best ways to avoid them are to use common sense. If an offer is too good to be true, it is important to check the developer’s social media to see if they mention anything about an ongoing offer. If not, we should check if there are multiple entries for the same game in the search engine; if there are, it is likely to be a scam, but not necessarily. Finally, for complete security, we can check the Steamdb record, where changes cannot go unnoticed. This is the 100% safe way to avoid being deceived.

While it is true that Steam took care of both quickly, that doesn’t mean it’s not important to keep in mind that these things happen. They could happen again. And the best way to avoid them is to have the tools to be able to identify them and let the platform know so they can intervene.

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Steam will soon include a feature that many users have been requesting for years

Steam could include in the coming weeks a functionality that its users have been asking for for years, although it has not yet been confirmed by Valce

While Valve has the most intricate service when it comes to digital game stores, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Its interface hasn’t aged particularly gracefully, and it lacks some features that one would desire. The lack of solid alternatives makes it the reigning queen, but also the fact that, from time to time, they dare to introduce some features that users have been demanding for years. Like the ability to hide games from our friends’ lists, for example.

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This new functionality was first discovered and shared by Pavel Djundik, the creator of SteamDB. According to Djundik, this new privacy option goes beyond the current privacy settings, which allow you to hide achievements and screenshots, by letting you mark certain games as private so that no one can see them.

Although it might seem like a niche feature, there has been widespread approval of this functionality on social media. There are many reasons to hide games, from wanting to maintain privacy for personal reasons to not wanting to expose our preferences for certain motives. This has played in favor of a very positive reception from the community. The reception, as expected, has not been without some humor along the way.

On the comedic side, there have been essentially two camps. On one hand, there are people who consider those who hide their games as cowards unwilling to expose their tastes, no matter how bad they might be. On the other hand, there are people who think that this will be a boom for the kind of games that most people don’t want others to know they’ve been playing.

Whether, joking aside, this will lead to a surge in bad, erotic, or perceived-as-childish games is something we’ll find out if the news is confirmed. But even if it doesn’t turn out to be true, judging by the public’s reaction, Steam would do well to introduce this functionality.

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