20-Year Old Title’s Sudden Surge in Player Count Can Put Major AAA Workhorses Like Starfield to Shame

There are many games that have risen to huge fame during their initial phases but later faded away as time went on. Starfield is a recent example of it. This space exploration title from Bethesda busted into the scene at the very beginning but then eventually failed to hold on to its consumers.

There are other games like Baldur’s Gate 3, which still hold the heavy ground with its huge player base. Despite being a one-year-old title, this Larian Studios game still jacks more than 50k concurrent players. However, there is a 20-year-old game that is still dominating the Steam charts.

Half-Life 2‘s Unexpected Player Surge Puts Starfield Into Shame

Half-Life 2 was released more than two decades ago. The game initially got huge popularity for its exciting FPS gameplay. This title combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling all into one. Being a 20-year-old game, it was bound to lose its aura and it did. But this first-person shooter remained one of the all-time classics.

However, recently the game has gotten a sudden burst of response from the players. As per SteamDB, the game right now boasts over 30k concurrent players with a 24-hour peak of 64.085 players. Not only that, this also marks the game’s all-time peak, which was reached 18 hours ago (at the time of writing this article).

The game has got a surge of a staggering 96.37% suddenly in terms of concurrent player base. In 2012, 2020, and 2022, the game got several spikes in its player base, but these three don’t come close to the surge it got 18 hours ago.

This incredible feat puts Starfield to shame. This Bethesda space exploration title was released in September 2023 and gathered a huge player base in the initial part of its journey, with a peak of over 330k players.

Surprisingly, the game has stumbled so hard that only 2,579 players are playing it right now (as per SteamDB). Baldur’s Gate 3 is another title that is still massively popular despite being released around the same time as Starfield.

Half-Life 2: Episode 3 – New Footage Showcased

In addition to giving the game away for free for a short time, Valve recently released a documentary tracing the development of the renowned first-person shooter in honor of Half-Life 2‘s 20th anniversary. The company also shows off tidbits of a much-anticipated project that never materialized—Half-Life 2: Episode 3—during that documentary.

Additionally, Valve has unveiled brand-new, never-before-seen footage of the shelved project in the documentary. It introduces a brand-new shapeshifting enemy type that resembles a blob and has the ability to split into smaller versions of itself or move through grates. Additionally displayed was a brand-new weapon known as the Ice Gun, which performed precisely as its name implied.

Members of the development team for Episode 3 disclose in the documentary that Valve had created several game levels prior to the project being halted so the team could assist in finishing the development of Left 4 Dead. However, Valve leadership, including Gabe Newell, concluded that it was too late to go back to Half-Life 2: Episode 3 by the time that was finished.