The battle royale genre was suddenly rocked by Stealth Respawn’s Apex Legends, which appeared out of nowhere.

It ultimately proved to be the ideal combination of engaging gameplay, AAA production value, and a free-to-play business model, helping it briefly dethrone Fortnite and PUBG as the most popular and viewed multiplayer games.

Although the numbers have decreased since its first month, which saw a record 2 million concurrent users, the community has remained sizable despite the occasional setback.

It’s safe to assume that Apex has established itself in the genre and won a permanent position there. Until now, the peak player count for Apex Legends on Steam was 411,183 in 2022. On a good day, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the sum exceed a million after the console numbers are tallied.

Top 7 Most Popular Online Games In 2024

1. PUBG

Despite the battle royale genre being overrun with imitation games, the game that launched the frenzy that has changed the online gaming environment in the previous several years, PUBG, still has a sizable audience.

Most famously, of course, Fortnite from Epic Games has since supplanted it. Due to its expensive business model and delayed platform release, PUBG fell quickly behind Fortnite.

While other games in the category cannot compare to PUBG’s tactical military sim experience, it may no longer be the king of the battle royale genre.

The PUBG community should continue to thrive into 2021 as a result of it and the fact that its mobile version is also very popular (numbers not included in the aforementioned statistics).

The peak concurrent player count for PUBG in 2022 was 696,704, a considerable rise from the previous year. It was just 458,778 in 2021.

2. Dota 2

Dota 2 is another game with a yearly rise in concurrent players. The widespread belief that the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre is dying appears to be debunked by its rise.

MOBA games may not be growing as quickly as they once did, but that doesn’t mean they’re going away anytime soon. The follow-up to the genre’s father, DOTA 2, continues to outperform the majority of the opposition.

Despite being established for almost ten years, it frequently approaches and occasionally exceeds a million continuous gamers.

Similar to CS: GO, its esports presence has cultivated a devoted community of players that are hesitant to transition to another IP. DOTA 2 is also quite popular in the East, particularly in China, where a major portion of its player base is located.

3. Counter-Strike

In Counter-Strike: GO, the action never stops. An all-time high of more than 1.3 million concurrent players was recorded in April 2020.

In addition to being a very outstanding statistic in and of itself, the game has been producing performances of this caliber for the past eight years.

For this year, CS: GO reached its highest point in April at 1,013,237. Newer versions are unable to catch up to CS: GO due to the popularity of esports and the strength of the franchise brand, which has existed since the late 1990s.

The game continues to be popular mostly in Europe, where nations like Russia significantly increase the size of the overall active community.

4. The Lost Ark

Lost Ark, the sole 2022 release on this list, debuted in February to immediate success and has since become quite well-liked.

In its first month, the 2.5D fantasy MMORPG had an astounding 1.3 million concurrent users, but unlike other games like New World, Lost Ark has kept up its momentum.

With an incredible 800,000+ concurrent gamers registered in the past 30 days according to Steam Charts, there has barely been any reduction.

5. Minecraft

We can be confident that Minecraft’s player base has increased significantly over the previous four years because it is a giant that is constantly moving. For evidence, just have a look at its monthly active users (MAU).

DOTA 2 had an estimated 11.9 million MAUs at the beginning of 2019, for comparison and to provide some perspective on where we’ve grown Minecraft in the absence of more recent concurrent figures. Ten times as much is in Minecraft.

Our 1.4 million concurrent users figure comes from a Polygon story from 2015, when the MAU of Minecraft was thought to be under 40 million. It’s hardly impossible that Minecraft presently has peak usage rates that are more than triple the current average.

6. Roblox

Since its debut in 2006, Roblox has had a meteoric rise in popularity, notably during the past five years. 700,000 players were playing simultaneously when CEO David Baszuski joyfully announced in 2016 that the 1 million milestones was not far away.

By the year 2020, 4 million gamers were concurrently watching Roblox’s 7th Annual Bloxy Awards.

We are convinced that Roblox has earned its position at #4 on this list, even though the novelty of this event slightly distorts the concurrent record for this list.

We are aware that, even outside of special events, Roblox frequently experiences over 1 million concurrent users throughout the year.

7. Crossfire

Many of our readers probably haven’t heard of one of the most popular video games in the world until quite recently. A Counter-Strike clone called Crossfire, now only available in Korea, will soon be available in the West.

In a recent agreement, Microsoft and the Korean game developer Smilegate Entertainment agreed that in 2021, Crossfire X would be released only on Microsoft platforms.

We are unsure if the sequel will include the same concurrent numbers. Whether the upcoming version of the game is being developed particularly for the Western market or if it will be released globally will depend on this.

If it matches Smilegate’s boasts of 8 million active players at once, it will undoubtedly have high expectations.

It’s important to note that this data has been provided for a number of years, thus it’s not quite apparent how big the community for the game is right now.