Half-Life 2 player numbers on Steam have shot up following an anniversary update released last week, resulting in the game reaching its highest concurrent Steam player count since its release.
A quick look at Half-Life 2's SteamDB charts shows that the game managed to reach 64,085 players around 21 hours ago (at time of writing), which is its highest total of all time on the platform.
At time of writing, 45,121 players were still enjoying Gordon Freeman's second major adventure, so Half-Life 2 is still riding that wave of renewed popularity. Who knows for how much longer it will last? Let's hope a while, at least.
Half-Life 2's surge in popularity comes after the appropriately-named Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Update, which was released on Friday to coincide with - you guessed it - the game's 20th anniversary.
The update adds both Episode One and Episode Two to the base Half-Life 2 game, so if you somehow own Half-Life 2 but not its expansions, then you can now enjoy those at no additional cost. They're well worth it!
You'll also now find developer commentaries for the original game included in the Steam package, as well as Steam Workshop support to make modding a little easier. Several visual bugs have been fixed, and new graphics options have been added to "push the visual fidelity of Half-Life 2".
If you want to know how Half-Life 2 was made, then you'll also probably find the new documentary, created by the folks behind a similar project for the original Half-Life's 25th anniversary, entertaining and interesting.
It wasn't just the update that bolstered Half-Life 2's player numbers, though. The game is currently being given away for free on Steam, with the giveaway running until 10am Pacific today (that's 1pm Eastern). Grab it if you haven't already.
This Half-Life 2 update arrives not long after the discovery of something codenamed White Sands once again set off speculation around a new Half-Life game earlier this year. Just in case you need reminding, White Sands is the name of a location in New Mexico, which is also where Half-Life's Black Mesa is located.
