Fallout 4 Had A Huge First Day On Steam

Apparently a lot of you folks were eager to explore the destroyed landscape of Boston, as Fallout 4 enjoyed a record-breaking launch day that saw it becoming the most-played non-Valve game on Steam.

We already knew that Fallout 4 would be a success, but it looks like the game is doing even better than expected, topping the record for most concurrent players in a game that wasn’t developed by the folks who, you know, own the platform. While DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are still pulling down big numbers, Fallout 4 is nipping at their heels with the impressive player base it has amassed in just 24 hours.

At present, Steam’s charts have Fallout 4 clocking in at a big 343,854 concurrent players. The game’s peak over the past day was 445,546 players which, according to Polygon, bested the previous record holder, Grand Theft Auto V.

In case the current figure for Fallout 4 seems pretty high, you have to remember that today is Veterans Day here in the States, which means a lot of folks (including students aplenty) are enjoying a day off. It looks like nearly 400,000 of those people decided to honor the nation’s troops by murdering mutants in the wastelands.

For another fun comparison, the game directly under Fallout 4 for most current players is another Valve game, Team Fortress 2, at just 63,746. Below that is another recent release, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, pulling down just 38,537. Again, that’s not a huge surprise since the Call of Duty series is predominantly played on consoles rather than Steam.

And just because we’re all about numbers today, you might be interested in knowing that the former non-Valve record holder, GTA V, peaked at 360,761 concurrent players. In other words, Fallout 4 bested the former king by nearly 100,000 players and, in the middle of the morning on a holiday, it’s still neck and neck with that old record.

This is especially interesting to me because I still occasionally hear folks grumble that gaming, in general, is on a downslide and “Isn’t PC gaming dead already?” Stats like these tell a different story, one where gaming (on console or PC), seems to be doing just fine.

Speaking of which, how many of our readers are playing Fallout 4 today? If not, what games are keeping you busy through this mid-week holiday? Please let us know in the comments section below.