DayZ breaks another concurrent player record after more than 10 years of Steam

DayZ is a game that has been around for a while. It was first an Arma 2 mod and then a standalone survival title. The game was released in early access in 2013, with the full release coming in 2018. The player numbers are still increasing, even after all these years. Developer Bohemia Interactive revealed last week that the Frostline expansion led to a new daily active user record of 501.522.

Nearly half of those players--235,618--came from Steam, followed by 152,037 on Xbox One and 113,897 PlayStation 4. Frostline's expansion set new records for concurrent players. 78,937 were on Steam, followed by 36,000 on Xbox and 33,000 on PlayStation. Unfortunately, SteamDB does not work on consoles.

Scott Bowen, DayZ's brand manager, said: "We are thrilled to celebrate DayZ Frostline’s first week of success. We owe this to our incredible community." "A heartfelt thanks to all members, from veteran survivors and fresh spawns. Your unwavering commitment and insightful feedback has been the driving force behind DayZ’s evolution. The recent surge in player numbers also reflects its enduring vitality. DayZ is a driving force in the survival genre that pushes boundaries in all aspects.

Bohemia has announced that the Frostline expansion pack has already sold over 300,000 copies.

It's amazing to see that numbers are still increasing on a game this old. I'm not sure if this is why so many studios continue to make survival games (there's money in those hills) or if it's why they fail (those hills have been inhabited for a long time). Frostline's popularity is interesting to me, because Jake Tucker of PC Gamer described it as a "miserable package of death and failure" in a mostly complimentary way. DayZ players seem to be into this.

It's important to note, however, that Frostline is not a blip in a game otherwise on cruise control. It has been trending up since its full release.

Frostline's impact was evident, but DayZ's performance over the past five years has been nothing less than enviable.

Bohemia Interactive has had a lot of big news recently, but it's not just about DayZ. The studio announced last week that Arma 4, the latest version of its also-long-running-and-still-doing-numbers military sim, finally has a release target--which, sorry to say, isn't until 2027. It looks like we'll be playing Arma 3 a long time.