Sonic Frontiers was officially released on November 8, and it has been doing surprisingly well since. The speedy blue hedgehog is a classic, but the Sonic series hasn’t been doing as well over the years. A recent review described this newest installment as “the kick up the backside 3D Sonic has been crying out for,” and the Metacritic and Steam scores have reflected this positive reception as well. In fact, Steam has found that Sonic Frontiers has “set a new record for the number of concurrent players for any Sonic game” on the platform.
Concurrent players are players that are playing the same game at the same time, suggesting that there is a high rate of interaction with the game. In just one week, the all-time peak number of concurrent players for the new release was 19,181 on Steam four days ago. It’s true that this is still a relatively small number when compared to some of the highest peaks for games on Steam. Consider the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II 24-hour peak of 196,198 players, or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a current peak of 848,389 players and a 24-hour peak of 1,105,409 concurrent players.
Still, when compared to other Sonic games, Sonic Frontiers is doing really well. The previous record-holder for the series was around five years ago with Sonic Mania. That game had an all-time peak of only 11,937 concurrent players. It’s all downhill from there. It should be noted that Sonic Colors Ultimate from last year is not included in these Steam rankings because it is an Epic Games Store exclusive. Below is a chart that shows the highest concurrent players for each of the Sonic games on Steam.
1. Sonic Frontiers – 19,181
2. Sonic Mania – 11,937
3. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed – 5,861
4. Sonic Origins – 2,668
5. Sonic Forces – 2,058
6. Sonic Generations – 1,686
7. Team Sonic Racing – 1,056
8. Sonic Lost World – 252
Video Game News
This news combined with the recent Metacritic user score of 8.8 and the “Very Positive” rating on Steam spells out great news for the team behind Sonic Frontiers. Players and reviews are kindly praising the game design, despite some “quirks” that pop up. While the Nintendo Switch Metascore was a 73, citing the game’s repetitive tasks, overall the reception has been positive. If you’re ready to start playing, Sonic Frontiers is available now for PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
