One of Valve’s Most Beloved Classics Is Dominating Steam Again After a Recent Update

Amazingly, Valve has deployed a brand-new update for one of its most beloved multiplayer titles, giving it a mighty boost in concurrent players. More specifically, the video game in question is Team Fortress 2, which is undoubtedly one of the most iconic games in the publisher’s portfolio.

Dubbed the Summer 2023 update, the new patch isn’t just a bog standard list of bug fixes. Instead, it adds a bunch of new content 16 years after its original release. That’s right, the new update includes 14 new community maps, 25 community-contributed items, six new taunts, 20 community-created Unusual effects, 10 new war paints, and much more. Pretty impressive, eh?

Here’s a list of all the new community maps being added in the latest update:

• Sharkbay
• Rotunda
• Phoenix
• Cashworks
• Venice
• Reckoner
• Sulfur
• Hardwood
• Pelican Peak
• Selbyen
• VSH Tinyrock
• VSH Distillery
• VSH Skirmish
• VSH Nucleus

As you can imagine, with all this freshly added content, there’s been a huge surge in concurrent players over on Steam. In fact, Team Fortress 2 is currently number 5 in Steam’s Top 10 most concurrent players right now. I mean, it’s even taken over Grand Theft Auto V, which is pretty bonkers.

What’s truly amazing, though, is that this is the highest amount of concurrent players the game has ever seen. From what we can gather, Team Fortress 2’s biggest spike in players was back in June 2021 with 150,037 players, according to SteamCharts. Now, following the latest Summer 2023 update, the game has seen a peak concurrent player count of 253,225. Wowsers!

Of course, it’s worth noting that all the maps have been created by Team Fortress 2’s close-knit community rather than Valve itself, which is another testament to how cherished and adored the game is.

Originally released back in 2007, the online multiplayer team-based shooter boasts a very dedicated fanbase, even to this day. Frankly, Team Fortress 2 was the tip of the spear when it comes to competitive online shooters, and was one of the titles that helped usher in a new age for objective-based PvP FPS action. In other words, there’s a reason why it’s still so popular and beloved by shoot ’em up fans.

But, what say you? Will you be getting the old band together and diving back into some Team Fortress 2? Or will you be giving it a hard pass? Capture that flag in the usual place down below and let us know.