Rust Beats Its Own Record For Concurrent Player Count

Rust has set a brand new record for concurrent users playing the game on Steam, with more than 200,000 players online at the same time. Despite being released in 2013 in early access and only seeing an official launch in 2018, the game has seen something of a resurgence in recent times. The survival crafting title is also set to come to consoles in the near future, although this has been delayed, leading to speculation about when Rust will come to PlayStation systems.

A large part of the success of Rust is likely the result of a recent jump in terms of its popularity on streaming sites such as Twitch. Like many titles over the last 12 months, Rust has seen its success boosted by the fact that more viewers are tuning in following stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, several high-profile streamers have joined together to play the game on an OfflineTV server. The fact that some big-name streamers are playing together has led to even more people watching Rust streams to see the action.

According to Game Rant, the game has seen a huge jump in concurrent players over the last few days. This week alone, Rust has set a number of records for the number of users online at the same time on Steam. The game had more than 130,000 players multiple times in January 2021. However, yesterday, the title had a big jump as it reached almost 204,000 players. This is almost a 50% increase in concurrent users compared to the previous record that stood at just 125,000 players in 2020.

Rust is not the only game that has seen a rise in popularity in 2020 and 2021. Among Us became a surprise hit even though it originally launched in 2018. Meanwhile, high-profile games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive also saw new highs in terms of concurrent players and stream views. The COVID-19 pandemic forcing people to work from home and avoid going out has meant that game streaming has become an even more important factor in the industry.

Seeing Rust climb up the charts on Steam is not a big surprise. The game has been steadily building up a bigger audience on Twitch in recent weeks and continues to be updated with new content and features. This means that there is plenty to keep fans invested in the game and coming back to it. It also shows just how influential streaming can be for the success of a title, with Twitch driving viewers to try out the game for themselves.

Source: Game Rant

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Nathan P. Gibson
(489 Articles Published)

Nathan is a freelance writer with a passion for video games. He has contributed to a variety of outlets over the last five years and has written everything from breaking news stories to reviews of AAA games.

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