Stray's Day One Concurrent Player Count Proves Its Popularity : Games : Gamenguide

To say that the new puzzle platformer Stray is popular is a massive understatement - perhaps the greatest of the year.

(Photo : Steam )
stray steam

The refreshing game, where you play as a literal stray cat, is proving to be a hit with gamers. At least on Steam, that is. As reported by Push Square, Stray's player count reached over 60,000 concurrent players on Valve's digital storefront on day one.

While this might sound a little small, consider that the game also launched on PlayStation (namely the PS4 and PS5), so the actual count might be much, much higher. Another thing to note is that the game is even available for those who didn't actually buy it, as it is part of the current PlayStation Plus Extra catalog as well.

Stray's player count of over 60k concurrent ones on Steam is an insane number if you have context. This kind of figure is something previously only achievable for a massive AAA game, but not this one. This is more than enough proof that indie developer BlueTwelve Studios and publisher Annapurna Interactive have knocked it out of the park, especially when also considering their recent games.

The next-highest concurrent player count of any Annapurna game was Twelve Minutes, and it doesn't even come close at 8,021. This is followed by Outer Wilds with 7,936, Neon White with 3,277, and Journey (which was also an excellent game) with a mere 1,757. This makes Stray Annapurna's biggest PC launch ever, and perhaps these numbers are only going to get bigger.

All in all, Stray's numbers on SteamCharts are amazing to behold. Since it launched, the game's all-time peak sits at 51,455, with its 24-hour peak at 40,351. All that remains now is for Sony to reveal player counts on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, to see just how big of a hit this game really is.

When Stray was first revealed, it was a very refreshing IP in an industry long saturated by decades-old triple-A titles. In it, you play not as a stereotypical, muscle-bound, skilled hero: but an ordinary stray cat whose goal is to escape a cyberpunk-like city full of humanoid robots.

Stray's Enduring Popularity Among... Cats?

With these amazing Stray player count numbers on Steam, you're correct in assuming that even so-called "hardcore" gamers are picking it up. But you probably never expected that it would also a hit with actual cats.

True enough, a handful of players are uploading videos and photos of their pet cats reacting to Stray being played on screen. Most of them are saying that their pets are normally apathetic to anything shown on the TV. But whenever they start playing the game, their cats are mostly glued to it. An entire Twitter profile called Cats Watching Stray was even created to host these images:

It's hard to know why this is, but maybe the most obvious answer lies in the game's very realistic animations. As you can see in the gameplay, the titular stray cat moves and acts just like a real one would in real life, with all the fluidity and grace that comes with feline movement. A cat would see this and assume that it's a real one it's seeing on screen, resulting to the adorable pictures and videos floating online.

This article is posted on GameNGuide

Written by RJ Pierce