Satisfactory breaks 100,000 concurrent players on Steam for the first time ever after its long-awaited 1.0 release

You would think that after more than five years in early access, everyone who wanted to play Satisfactory would've gotten around to it at one point or another, and the 1.0 release would be, you know, nice but not essential. Or at least I would think that—and then I would have to admit that I was completely wrong about the whole thing.

The 1.0 release of Satisfactory has seen the game's concurrent player count on Steam rocket past 100,000—the first time it's ever even come close to that mark. (The previous peak, according to Steam Charts, was 34,238, still a damned respectable figure for such a niche game.) 

That's gotta be satisfying. (Image credit: Steam Charts)

And it's not just veteran Satisfactorians wandering back in to see what's new: Satisfactory has also climbed into the top 10 on Steam's top sellers list. That's a whole lot of new Satisfactorios on the scene.

It's an impressive high note for a game that's already done very well for itself, for a very long time. Satisfactory launched into early access in March 2019 on the Epic Games Store, where it sold more than 500,000 copies in less than three months, making it one of the few Epic exclusives to actually make money

It made the move to Steam just over a year later, where it continued to evolve and expand: When the 1.0 release date was announced in July, our resident Satisfactician Wes Fenlon called it "the best building/automation game on PC," and that was before the release of the final, "it's finished" 1.0 update.

The 1.0 version of Satisfactory is definitely not just a bit of tweaks and tuning on the way out the door. Wes laid out a full list of what's new in 1.0 and it's awfully long, encompassing everything from performance improvements and optimizations to quality of life features, player customization, new fuel types, and whatever Somersloops and Mercer Spheres are. "The short version is there's way more to do in Satisfactory than there was in the beginning," he wrote, and right now there's way more people doing it, too.

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Read more
A medieval city
'It may seem like a whole new game': One of my favorite medieval city builders just got a huge update with a ton of new features
The protagonist of My Summer Car smoking a cigarette outside while a truck in the background pumps out a septic tank.
My Summer Car, the absurdly detailed Finnish life sim about vehicle maintenance and drinking in your underpants, smashes into 1.0 after nearly a decade in Steam early access
Factorio base screenshot with photo of Oppenheimer actor Cillian Murphy in front
The Factorio 'God Factory' was one of this year's greatest gaming feats: 'Most players will never find themselves hitting the limits of the game. We are.'
Valve soldier man on a pc.
2024 was Steam's 'best year ever' of users buying newly released games—but I wouldn't celebrate the end of the forever game era just yet
A medieval merchant in a small village
Manor Lords, the best city builder of 2024, hits 3 million sales as players continue to fill its maps with muddy medieval towns
Money money money.
Valve tracked 1.7 million Steam users who joined in 2023 to see if they stuck around—they did, and they spent $93 million
Latest in Sim
An ancient, angry stone mech from No Man's Sky's new Relics update
No Man’s Sky lets you unearth ancient, angry mechs in the astro-archaeology filled Relics update
Dwarf Fortress adventure mode art
After 23 years of making Dwarf Fortress, even its creator is still 'terrified' of drowning all his dwarves with aquifers: 'Part of the problem is we are just not good at videogames'
Tarn Adams, who cofounded Bay 12 Games with his brother Zach, talks about their single-player simulation game "Dwarf Fortress" during an interview at their home office in Poulsbo, Washington, west of Seattle, on December 9, 2022. - A cult favorite among indie game fans, "Dwarf Fortress" has been available for purchase on the Steam online store since December 6, a first for this title that has been distributed for free since its debut in 2006. The real-time management game, set in a medieval-fantasy world and involving overseeing a group of dwarves seeking to build a mighty fortress, has climbed to the fourth best-selling weekly title on Steam. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)
Dwarf Fortress' creator is so tired of hearing about AI: 'Press a button and it writes a really sh*tty, wrong essay about something—and they still take your job'
Decorations in TCG Card Shop Simulator
TCG Card Shop Simulator finally adds the ability to decorate our stores, and suddenly all my profits are being spent on adorable Pigni posters
A person on a snowmobile riding a track in the forest in game Sledders.
Powder enthusiasts seem pretty pleased with new physics-based realistic snowmobile sim Sledders
Dean Hall at GDC 2025.
Outer space inspired DayZ's Dean Hall to become a modder and game developer, and now he's making a Kerbal successor called Kitten Space Agency
Latest in News
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event