When the firstHalf-Lifegame hit shelves back in 1998, it became a phenomenal success, winning multiple awards and becoming an instant classic. In fact, it’s gone on to becomeone of the most innovative FPS games of all time, up there with the likes ofDoomandQuake. To this day, people are still playing and modding the iconic shooter. In fact, some fans have been playing it so much that they’ve managed to break a previous record.
Before very recently, the record for most concurrent people playingHalf-Lifeat the same time was just over 6,000. Now, as spotted by The Gamer, this number has been more than doubled, with the new figure peaking at 12,310, which is a pretty significant achievement. A VOD on the LambdaGeneration YouTube channel captured their entire livestream of the event, which lasted just under three hours in total. During the playthrough, it can be seen that the most players in the game peaked at 12,280. However, a tweet announcing the record had an update showing that Steam had registered 12,310.
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This event, which utilized the Twitter hashtag #RememberFreeman, had been discussed last month. A couple ofHalf-Lifefans wanted to encourage others to play on August 14, with the goal of beating the previous concurrent player record of 6,022, which was the number SteamDB had on its database at the time. The rules for the event stated that players must be in-game for at least half an hour in order for Steam to register it. Players also had to use the original game, so the Source build was not permitted, and neither were any of the official DLCs.
Given the sheer might and ubiquitousness of Steam, there are millions of PC gamers around the world that log on every single day. In January of this year,Steam hit 28.2 million concurrent players overall, which is nearly three million more than last January. Interestingly, both Steam andHalf-Lifewere developed by Valve.
With theloss of Arkane Studios’Ravenholmproject, which would have been aHalf-Life 2spinoff set in the titular abandoned mining town, hopes of a new entry in the series are fading fast. An official third entry in the adventures of Gordon Freeman has been sought after for many years now, but is looking less likely. While the VR gameHalf-Life: Alyxwas well received, many fans would prefer to see the continued exploits of the bespectacled mute scientist.
Half-Lifeoriginally released in 1998 for PC and was later ported to PS2.
