After yesterday's update that added 14 community-created maps, Team Fortress 2 is breaking records. The game, which came out in 2007, just broke its previous concurrent player record. SteamDB shows that Valve's free-to-player shooter hit an all-time concurrent user peak of 253,997 players.
Even right now at a bit after 6PM (ET), there are almost 235,000 people playing Team Fortress 2. It's 2023. This game game out 16 years ago! This game is old enough to drive and it's breaking records.
The peak of almost 254,000 concurrent players is more than double the average player count for the game. It's also well above the previous concurrent user record of 167,951 which was set in December 2022.
Obviously, the addition of 14 new maps, new taunts, new Unusual effects, and more are all major factors that contributed to the new peak player count. However, PCGamer has a slightly different theory as to why everyone has been playing Team Fortress 2 today: A seal on the new map, Selbyn.
The seal appears on a map called Selbyen, created by longtime TF2 mapmakers Rhamkin, Zythe, and was textured by Blaholtzen, modelled by FGD5 and animated by Nanoco1000. The excellent Fisherman's voice is provided by MegaPieManPHD. The seal begins the map in a van, before "release the seals" is declared and it begins waddling in a line towards the sea: players can speed it up by collecting mackerel on the map and feeding it.
SEAL
by u/FireMuffin303 in tf2
Oh, well when you put it that way, how could I not agree with PCGamer's assessment?
