There tends to be a steady flow of older games getting an influx of players, often for reasons that can’t be determined. That said, thousands of you flocking back to Detroit: Become Human, seemingly as a way to celebrate the holiday season, was not even close to being on my bingo card.
Detroit: Become Human was released eight years ago, and it has been available on Steam for the last six. Besides a short period at the end of 2024 where it experienced another player count boost – which I’m assuming, much like this latest one, was brought on by a price cut – there have never been more than 10,000 people playing it on Steam at the same time.
Detroit: Become Human Hits 25,000 Players On Steam
That was until the week before Christmas, when Become Human’s playercount tripled overnight according to SteamDB. Two days later, it had doubled again, and it has remained at more than 20,000 consistently ever since, hitting a record high on January 4, 2026, when there were 25,615 people playing at the same time. Even now, on a Friday morning EST time, there are almost 10,000 of you playing Become Human on Steam.
There is a very clear reason why this has happened, and it’s even more cause for celebration if you are one of the Quantic Dream team making money for it. Become Human was heavily discounted on Steam over the holidays. So much so that, according to Alinea Analytics, it sold almost one million copies in two weeks.
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Battlefield hit a higher high, but people are sticking around for Arc Raiders.
One Million People Bought Detroit: Become Human Over The Holidays
That means a couple of things for the 2018 title, beyond it getting a massive player count bump. Those extra million copies sold mean that Become Human has now surpassed 15 million copies sold, an incredible accomplishment for any game. Even more impressive is that it outsold almost every other game on Steam over the holidays, with Arc Raiders the only game that sold better. Battlefield 6 and Peak were among the top-selling games that couldn’t keep up with it.
Become Human joins Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora on the shortlist of games that unexpectedly received huge playercount bumps at the end of 2025. Avatar was a little less surprising than Become Human, as the release of Fire and Ash, coupled with the game getting tie-in DLC, drove people to try it out. However, Frontiers of Pandora quadrupling its player count on Steam was almost certainly more than anyone was expecting.
If nothing else, the cash injection from one million more copies sold will be a welcome one for Quantic Dream. Become Human was the studio’s last big release, and its next one, Star Wars Eclipse, still doesn’t have a release year, let alone a release date.
