Grand Theft Auto V sets new (non-Valve) user record

The PC version of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V has set a new record for the number of concurrent users on Steam playing a game not made by Valve.

Steam data shows that at its peak in the last 24 hours GTAV was being played by 301,246 people. While this is still behind Valve duo Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (432,298) and Dota 2 (777,070), it’s still the highest number ever seen for a non-Valve game.

The previous record holder was Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, which VentureBeat reports hit 287,411 concurrent users back in November 2011.

Note too that this number doesn’t reflect GTA V’s overall PC sales, as not only will only a portion of Steam owners be active at any one time but also the game has been available from other retailers, many of whom supplied codes that were directly redeemable directly from Rockstar.

The overall record holder for concurrent Steam players is still Valve’s Dota 2, which in February of this year passed the 1m figure.

With regard to Steam’s overall concurrent numbers, the most recent was the 9m users using the service simultaneously last month. 8m was passed for the first time in June last year, 7m in December 2013 and 6m in November 2012.

GTA V’s total sales stood at 45m as per February this year. That was after the game’s release on PS4 and Xbox One but prior to its arrival on PC earlier this week.

Upon its release in 2013 Grand Theft Auto V sold 1.57m copies across PS3 and Xbox 360 in the UK in its first day and 2.25m in its first week. The game’s global day one revenues reached $800m, equating to something in the region of 11m copies.