Half-Life 2 Hits an All-Time High During 20th Anniversary Celebrations

Half-Life 2 has secured a new player count record on Steam, with more users flocking to the game than ever before – or since records began, at least. On November 17, the iconic Valve-backed game hit 64,085 concurrent players, four times as many players as the previous all-time high.

It helps that Valve pushed the game onto Steam with a 100% discount, of course. The game was also updated with some new features and added content, which further stoked the engine (no pun intended).

Half-Life Comes Back to Life

In 2021, a limited-time community event boosted Half-Life 2’s player count to around 16,000 concurrent users, but this free-to-own weekend combined with the 20th-anniversary celebrations decimated that record.

To pay tribute to this legendary title on its 20th birthday, Valve added a sizeable developer commentary track to the game, equalling some three and a half hours. It doesn’t end there, though – Valve went above and beyond to flesh out Half-Life 2 with this update.

Not only was the game made free-to-own, but Valve linked both episodes of Half-Life 2, introduced the ‘Lost Coast’ demo into the launcher and brought the Steam Workshop up to spec to support the game’s modding scene.

The team also released an exclusive video showcasing almost 20 minutes of early footage from Half-Life 2’s development at Valve. The demo was pieced together in 2000, almost two years after the first game hit the market, and it was a world away from the finished product that would be released years later.

Have you jumped back into Half-Life 2 to celebrate the game’s 20th anniversary? Let us know in the comments.

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