Factorio's player count is through the roof after the Space Age expansion, ripping thousands of engineers away from their day jobs

Factorio Space Age
(Image credit: Wube Software LTD.)

Factorio's Space Age expansion went live yesterday, and it managed to set a new all-time player count peak for the game, with 91,801 players flooding back in to check out the expansion.

The Space Age expansion more than doubles the size of the original game, and continues the player's journey after they launch rockets into space. You can discover new worlds which you can exploit for resources, and manage your fleet of interplanetary space ships. You'll also have to build airtight defenses to shoot down incoming asteroids that could destroy your platform, use the rubble to harvest thruster fuel and turret ammunition, and finally use the platform hub and cargo bays to shuttle freight between planets. But you can check out the trailer to see what sick-looking planetary adventures lie ahead of you.

So it's not really surprising that Factorio has seen such a resurgence when it comes to player numbers. "Past 50,000 now," one player says. "Considering how many people are currently at work, me included, I expect this to continue rising. 70,000 is the next big milestone, 2x the previous peak." When the game released back in August 2020, it managed to hit a high of 34,700 players at one point, so 91,801 is an impressive feat that more than doubles its old record.

"100,000 this weekend is not out of the question if this keeps up," another player says. "Satisfactory 1.0 did the same thing last month. We really are in a golden age of factory games right now."

Satisfactory's player count has been steadily dropping since its first week at 1.0, and it managed to set a new all-time peak of 186,158 players, according to SteamDB. But since Factorio's Space Age expansion release, player count dropped by 20,000, so I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of those players hopped over to check out the new Factorio content. With more players probably on the way for the coming weekend, it'll be interesting to see just how high the player count will go. I'm also excited to see what kind of amazing creations we'll get out of this new burst in players.

Elie Gould
News Writer

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

Read more
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.'
A massive beachhead assault in indie RTS Beyond All Reason
Over 110 players and 10,000 units clash as this free RTS celebrates its growing multiplayer scene with some of the biggest multiplayer battles ever fought
A spacecraft flying near the sun in Elite: Dangerous
Elite Dangerous just implemented an entire system colonisation mechanic, in case you really want to get off this planet
Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds claws past Dota 2 and Lost Ark to be Steam's 5th most-played game ever, with a nearly 1.4 million peak player count
A scientist firing a rocket from a rocket launcher in Abiotic Factor
Abiotic Factor's massive Dark Energy update, which adds teleporters, pocket dimensions and black hole grenades to the Half-Life inspired survival sim, is out now
A still from the Civilization 7 opening cinematic.
Civilization 6 still has more daily Steam players than Civilization 7
Latest in Strategy
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
Civilization 7 Great Britain - Modern Civ art (via YouTube)
As Civilization 7 struggles to keep up with Civ 5 player counts, a new patch is coming tomorrow with still more UI changes and gameplay tweaks
Battle Brothers
Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.
Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
Age of Empires 2
Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
Endless Legend 2 Kin faction reveal
It's turtle time: Endless Legend 2's first faction is the fortification-loving Kin of Sheredyn
Latest in News
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
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Otter AI Meeting Agent
As if your work meetings weren't already fun enough, now Otter has a new all-hearing AI agent that remembers everything anyone has said and can join in the discussion