Team Fortress 2 Breaks Concurrent Player Count Record At 253,000

Team Fortress 2 has today broken its concurrent player count record peaking at 253,997 players just two hours ago.

Team Fortress 2 New Player Count Record

This new record set today on SteamDB at 253,997 players breaks the previous record that was set back in December 2022 of 167,951. This is a huge achievement, especially after 16 years since the game’s original release and once again proves that when Valve does make games, they make really good games. Valve’s other FPS title CS:GO is the other evidence of Valve’s expertise which hit 1.8M players two months ago.

Why The Sudden Surge In Players?

I don’t personally follow TF2 and have only played a few times but I have heard that its update’s are rare but as it turns out yesterday was one of those rare days. A new update was posted yesterday for Summer 2023 is the likely candidate for this surge in players as it has introduced 14 new community maps as well as a large variety of new cosmetics, taunts and effects and the Summer 2023 case. Having no knowledge of this being good, i visited the comments section which was a major mistake. Generally it seems like the TF2 community isn’t happy with this update and are dissapointed that there are no new weapons, balance changes and some bugs that haven’t been fixed. Reading the comments makes me a bit confused as to what has brought the player count up but there is an explanation for that. More often than not, people who are happy with game updates are less likely to voice their opinions which leaves a bit of a negative bias.

Either way, clearly most of the community is happy if this update has brought a new concurrent player count so well done to Valve. You can read the full patch notes below.

TF2 Summer 2023 Update Full Patch Notes

Summer 2023!

• Featuring 14 new community maps: Sharkbay, Rotunda, Phoenix, Cashworks, Venice, Reckoner, Sulfur, Hardwood, Pelican Peak, Selbyen, VSH Tiny Rock, VSH Distillery, VSH Skirmish, and VSH Nucleus
• Added the Summer 2023 Cosmetic Case
  • Contains 25 new community-contributed items
• Added 6 new community-contributed taunts to the Mann Co. Store
  • Taunt: Killer Joke
  • Taunt: Star-Spangled Strategy
  • Taunt: The Head Doctor
  • Taunt: Tuefort Tango
  • Taunt: The Road Rager
  • Taunt: The Killer Signature
• Added 20 new community-created Unusual effects
  • 12 new effects for Unusual hats
  • 8 new effects for Unusual taunts
• Added the Summer 2023 War Paint Case
  • Contains 10 new community-created War Paints that make-up the Summer 2023 Collection
  • Has a chance to give a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus item
• All cosmetic and taunt cases will grant Summer 2023 Unusual effects instead of their normal Unusual effects during the Summer event. This does not include crates.
• The Summer event runs through September 15th, 2023

General

• Security and stability improvements
• Fixed the Mann vs. Machine upgrade panel closing after receiving a matchmaking party invite
• Fixed an exploit related to the ConTracker and being able to move/shoot while it’s deployed
• Fixed the Strange Count Transfer Tool not being able to transfer stats for Sandvich items
• Fixed the Engineer not being able to move for a short period of time after doing The High Five taunt
• Fixed missing No Headphones style for the Universal Translator
• Fixed Engineer teleporter audio that was referencing the dispenser by mistake in Spanish
• Fixed incorrect alpha channels for the Smissmas 2021/2022 Cosmetic Case models
• Fixed the Winter 2019 War Paint Case not being shown in the Mann Co. Store
• Updated/Added some tournament medals
• Updated pl_enclosure_final to fix localization issues
• Updated cp_gravelpit_snowy
  • Boosted volume of snowman explosions
  • Added occluders to C to improve performance
  • Improved clipping
• Updated cp_steel
  • Prop collision cleanup and improved player clipping
  • Explosive splash bug collisions on stairs, props, etc., around the map
  • Spawn point issues (collision, prop blocking, clipping, etc.)
  • Fix Pyro door exploit on A
  • Fix choke and spam issues into Blu & Red spawns
  • Fix Pixel walk collision issues
  • Fixing ceiling clipping and stuck spots including exploits
  • Clean up geometry in spawns, the spawn locations and their exits
  • Fix roof readability issues, with sticky and rocket jumping
  • Fix rare double death bug when falling into pit
  • Fix Cliff stuck spots and ledges in E pit
  • Removed head glitch tele spawn on A-B connector
  • Fix rare overtime cap bug
  • Fix Red team getting stuck in spawn door to A
• Updated cp_mossrock
  • Fixed numerous perch points
  • Fixed players being able to get under Blu spawn
  • Fixed a location where a teleporter could be build out of the map
  • Fixed collision on rock near final point so it is more accurate to the visuals
  • Fixed lots of small visual bugs
  • Fixed some small exploits
  • Improved optimisation