Half-Life 2 fans decided to break the previous concurrent player count record set nine years ago. To do that, they invited everyone to participate in the game, both experienced players to enjoy the game once again and new players to try the game for the first time.
Before that, the highest concurrent Half-Life 2 player count on Steam was set in 2012, with 13 thousand people entering the game. However, the data on that record varies: Steam Charts claimed that 6,882 people joined the game simultaneously, but SteamDB indicated 13,216 players.
On August 14, 2021, more than 16 thousand people entered the game and thus broke the previous record in 30 minutes. According to Steam Charts, the new peak for concurrent online players is 10,309 people. SteamDB reports that there were 16,039 players at the same time.
With this flash mob, fans tried to draw Valve's attention to the series and encourage the developers to start working on a new part of the game. Unfortunately, Valve did not react in any way to the efforts of the fans, who proved one more time that the series is not forgotten.
Half-Life 2 was released on November 16, 2004. The game has been widely acclaimed as one of the best releases in industry history and has garnered many awards. After that, Valve released two story add-ons: Episode One and Episode Two. In 2020, the VR shooter Half-Life: Alyx was released, but the game did not receive the same popularity as Half-Life 2, since it was intended only for virtual reality devices.
