Roblox had more concurrent players than the entirety of Steam over the weekend as it reeled in over 45 million users

As a millennial with no kids or younger siblings to endlessly pester me with all things internet brainrot, it's all too easy for me to forget just how freakin' gigantic Roblox is. But gigantic it is, so much so that the platform managed to reel in over 45 million concurrent users on August 23—that's more than the entirety of Steam combined.

Valve's platform was reported to have hit 40 million concurrent users earlier this year after Monster Hunter Wilds drew in huge numbers, which still puts it roughly one Singapore short of Roblox's massive milestone.

The culprit behind such a massive playerbase over the weekend? Well, according to CEO David Baszucki, we have "great games" like—ahem—Steal a Brainrot, Grow a Garden, 99 Nights in the Forest, Blox Fruits, Brookhaven, and Dress to Impress to thank for it.

A good chunk of this also boiled down to games like Grow a Garden and Steal a Brainrot staging an "admin abuse war" live event, which drummed up some huge concurrents, each game drawing in around 20 million players each at their peak. The event saw huge rewards for players, and the two games traded jokes back and forth for 90 minutes, while the Roblox servers crumbled while attempting to let so many players through at once.

Now, how many of these 45 million Roblox users were bots? It's hard to say, really, and you could ask the same question about Steam's records. It's still a mean feat, even give or take a few million, and a stark reminder of how frighteningly all-pervasive the platform is. Especially when a good chunk of the people engaging with these games are children.

Roblox's weekend high hasn't been without some lows, though. Roblox Corporation is currently in the firing line for its recent decision to make unrated games inaccessible unless they have at least 1,000 lifetime visits. It's mostly being done under the guise of its continued efforts to protect underage users from predators, but it's drummed up all sorts of discussions around digital preservation in the process.