Steam reaches 7.6 million concurrent users

Steam, the online service from Half-Life and Portal studio Valve, continues to set records.

More than 7.6 million of Steam's 65 million members logged in yesterday, December 29, setting a new record for peak concurrent usage. This is up from 7 million recorded over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and a high of 6 million in 2012.

The data comes from Valve's own Steam Statistics page, which reveals the exact peak figure was 7,678,758, recorded at around 12 noon yesterday. Right now, there are more than 5.7 million people logged onto Steam.

Valve's own free-to-play title Dota 2 continues to be the most popular game on Steam. More than 538,000 people are playing the game right now. The next closest is Left 4 Dead 2 with more than 75,000 people playing currently. That game was free to download on Christmas Day.

The 2013 Steam Holiday Sale launched on December 19 and ends on Friday, January 3. Highlights for today include Spelunky for $3.49, Fallout: New Vegas for $2.49, and Mass Effect 2 for $5.99. Check out the full deal page for more.

While Valve is known to openly share user data for its Steam games, platform holders like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are less forthcoming about concurrent player levels.

The latest data from Microsoft says Xbox Live has 48 million members, while the PlayStation Network boasts 150 million registered accounts. It's unknown how many people have a registered Nintendo Network ID.