Going Free Has Given Evolve a Major Bump on Steam

Turtle Rock and 2K's decision to turn Evolve into a free game appears to be a success, at least in terms of the number of people playing it. Its popularity has surged since its re-release, bringing it to heights not seen since it originally launched.

While still not in the Top 10, Steam's list of its most popular games shows Evolve: Stage 2 as the No. 17 game today, July 8. The list is determined by peak player count; Evolve hit 25,167 earlier today. That's a far cry from the top titles, like Dota 2 (906,072), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (615,231), and Team Fortress 2 (73,553), but it's a more-than-respectable figure nonetheless.

In fact, that number puts it close to its all-time peak, which third-party tracking site Steam Charts has listed as 27,403. That came back in February 2015, the month the game was released. More strikingly, it's a dramatic increase from where it's been in recent months. Steam Charts has its peak player counts in the hundreds for much of this year, with January being the only month in 2016 where it topped 1,000 concurrent players prior to this week.

Evolve: Stage 2 is a free download, with all of its content available to be unlocked by simply playing the game. There is, as of yet, no way to spend money on anything in it. Turtle Rock considers this release to be a beta as it tests out a large number of changes.