Half-Life 2’s 20th Anniversary update has sparked a new concurrent player count record on Steam.
Valve’s influential shooter hit a peak concurrent player count of 64,222 over the weekend after the studio released an upgraded experience with new features alongside a documentary that revealed gameplay of the canceled Episode 3. It helps that Half-Life 2 also went ‘free to keep’ until today, November 18.
Half-Life 2 launched on November 16, 2004, a year after Steam itself. Public records for the game’s concurrent player count only begin in September 2008, according to SteamDB, so we don’t know how many played Half-Life 2 at launch 20 years ago. But we do know that at no point since September 2008 has Half-Life 2 been as popular on Steam as it is now. Half-Life 2’s previous recorded best was 16,101 in August 2021 after a community event sparked a resurgence of interest.
The anniversary update means Half-Life 2 now includes the complete Episode One and Episode Two expansions along with the base game. They’re accessible from the main menu, and you automatically advance to the next expansion after completing each one.
There’s also a new Developers Commentary for the Half-Life 2 base game, after Valve got the team back to record three-and-a-half hours of new behind-the-scenes commentary.
Perhaps most exciting is integrated Steam Workshop support, which lets players browse, install, and play user-created content for Half-Life 2 without ever leaving the game. Meanwhile, there are bug fixes and new graphics options that let players push the visual fidelity of Half-Life 2 further than was allowed in the original release.
All these updates, the documentary and its associated headlines, and the ‘free to keep’ offer have combined to boost interest in all things Half-Life 2, and send thousands of players into City 17 to fight back against the Combine.
The question now is, will Valve finally follow it up with Half-Life 3?
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.