The DayZ Steam player count is suddenly higher than ever, as the open-world survival game and predecessor to the likes of PUBG, Fortnite, and Call of Duty Warzone sees a big spike on Valve’s platform more than ten years since its initial release. Originally a mod for the tactical shooter Arma 2, DayZ first arrived in 2012, with various, standalone launches following in 2013. A hardcore, quasi-battle royale game, it became the model for some of the biggest hits of the last decade. Now, DayZ is pulling in more Steam players than ever before.
Drop into a deserted, post-apocalyptic open world. Scrounge gear. Traverse the wilderness. Stay alive. In 2012, DayZ felt like an entirely new experience, one of the progenitors of what would become the battle royale game. There are hostile mobs of zombies, but the bigger threat is other players. You need to eat, drink, watch your fatigue. If we’re talking about the rise of modern gaming – even the likes of Twitch and gaming YouTube – DayZ represents one of the most important milestones.
Over the last decade, DayZ has been overshadowed by the games it helped inspire, including PUBG – originally launched as a spin-off of DayZ, Call of Duty Warzone, and the monolithic Fortnite. Nevertheless, DayZ is having a sudden resurgence – as of this writing, it’s just set a huge new player count record.
On Sunday November 12, 69,449 players logged into play DayZ on Steam, marking an all-new record for concurrent users on Valve’s platform. Two days previous, DayZ had a max player count of some 59,000, meaning 10,000 more players jumped into the survival game over the weekend.
The new record pushes DayZ up the Steam max player chart, where it now sits above several other multiplayer hits including Sea of Thieves, Back 4 Blood, and close rival Project Zomboid. Recent Steam reviews award DayZ an overall rating of ‘very positive.’ Following DayZ update 1.23, which introduces a big visual overhaul and changes to spawns and gameplay, perhaps this is the start of a comeback.
In the meantime, check out some of the other best zombie games, or maybe, if you’re thinking of finally giving it a try, the best DayZ servers for 2023.
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