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As GOG struggles, Steam hit a new high of 27M people online

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Recently we had news that DRM-free store GOG has been struggling with losses, and here's Steam continuing to just smash through previous records.

With the previous all-time high of 26,922,926 users online back in April 2021, on November 28 it yet again broke the record with 27,384,959 according to SteamDB. At the time the record hit, around 7.8 million were actually in-game and while it's of course spread across so many, the winner continues to be Valve's own free to play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with about 915,791 online playing.

It's not a big surprise this time around, since it hit during a big sale event so no doubt millions of people are picking up and playing a fresh set thanks to the discounts.

A question for you: do you expect the Steam Deck to push Steam player numbers even higher? For a lot of people, it will be an additional device but no doubt it's a device that will be pulling in some new users who didn't previously use Steam or even a PC. It will be thoroughly interesting to see if there's much of an effect there.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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rustybroomhandle Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: TeodosioI would be curious to know how many preorders they got for the Steam Deck!
And how many are they planning to ship in Q1 and Q2 2022.

Well, technically 0, since nobody has actually paid any more than the $5 reservation fee and nobody is actually obligated to order once they become available.
libgradev Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: Perkeleen_VittupääI for one would have bought likely hundreds of games if GOG would have provided that Galaxy client for Linux (https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/release_gog_galaxy_20_for_linux)... Now every penny has gone to GabeN and Steam

Yeah, I love the idea of GoG but I'm finding it a harder and harder sell these days... I'm of a mind now to get everything on Steam and just grab the game again on GoG as a backup when dirt cheap.

The integration in Steam just makes managing the games so much easier.
BlooAlien Dec 1, 2021
I know Windows die-hards who are buying/reserved a Steam Deck with no intent of replacing the built-in operating system, so if nothing else maybe it'll push the Linux user count a tad higher. Here's hoping… Even if not, the changes it's brought about regarding DRM/Anti-Cheat are/will be a massive benefit.
kerossin Dec 1, 2021
It seems really weird that GOG with their "FCK DRM" philosophy doesn't properly support an open OS like Linux so it's more of a choice for hardcore anti-DRM people and everyone else chooses Steam with actual Linux support.
Lofty Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: kerossinIt seems really weird that GOG with their "FCK DRM" philosophy doesn't properly support an open OS like Linux so it's more of a choice for hardcore anti-DRM people and everyone else chooses Steam with actual Linux support.

It was just a corporate slogan all along i guess. perhaps it should of said "FCKing Hell implementing DRM is expensive, lets not bother and pretend it's a virtue"
rafagars Dec 1, 2021
When I was using windows I preferred GOG over Steam because its DRM-free policy. But when I changed to Linux I felt their services weren't good enough and that Steam was doing a better job, so I started using the later more and dropped GOG.


Last edited by rafagars on 1 December 2021 at 3:15 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Dec 1, 2021
Even if the Steam Deck is almost exclusively bought by people who already gamed on Steam, I think it's likely that it will cause them to game on Steam more than before. They will be able to game in situations where they couldn't before, and if part of their gaming was on other devices like consoles the Steam Deck may shift how much gaming they do on what.
If they game more on Steam, they may well also buy more games on Steam.
pb Dec 1, 2021
> do you expect the Steam Deck to push Steam player numbers even higher?

It will surely push the number of on-line users and probably also in-game players, even if the game will be paused and the deck laid aside.
jarhead_h Dec 1, 2021
I buy old games on GOG. Most of it is either running in DOSbox or wine. Anything new that doesn't specifically ship linux native I default to Steam because Valve has put in and continues to put in a TON of work to make linux game-friendly. GoG offers linux options when it doesn't have to put in much work. So I buy accordingly.

EPIC has told us to eff off. So I did.

Blizzard has told us top eff off. So I did.

Origin......
Odisej Dec 1, 2021
GOG has quite a few problems. First of all, the prices of old games went up quite considerably. Recently they added some Star Trek games for 10€ each ... no thanks. It is also simply more convenient to buy on Steam (wonderful Linux support), quite a few games I would be interested in are also not available on GOG. And there seem to be issues with developers as well. One time I contacted one about supporting Linux on GOG (there was a Linux version of his game on Steam) and he did not sound happy about GOG at all. Don't know why and did not ask.
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