Seven years after it made its debut in December 2013 as an early access title, Rust has reached a new peak concurrent user count. In other words, everyone is once again playing Rust.
Rust is a multiplayer survival game which was originally created as a clone for DayZ, a mod for ARMA 2. In Rust players must gather resources, build settlements and try not to die at the hands of other players.
If Rust is a game you’d totally forgotten about but have suddenly been seeing recently across social media, you won’t be alone.
To be honest I had totally forgotten that this game had even existed, but in recent weeks I’ve seen it appear on a weekly basis on my YouTube recommendation tab.
It is said that like many online focused games, the global pandemic has helped drive up the player numbers and streamers such as Shroud and xQc have also had a positive impact on viewership.
Rust, developed by Facepunch Studios, left its early access stage in 2018 and since then it’s been building a gradual fan base and is now being streamed by more content creators than ever before.
The popularity of Rust has grown to the extent that on Monday, January 4th 2021, there were 134,483 gamers playing Rust simultaneously, which is a new current record high for the survival game. The previous record was around 125,000 in April 2020, as reported by PCGamesN.
On average according to PCGamesN, throughout 2020 Rust would reach a daily peak of concurrent players between 70,000 to 100,000 players. While Rust is currently only available on PC and Mac, a recent ESRB rating revealed that the survival game would be coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this year.
Have you been playing Rust along with everyone else on the planet?
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Featured Image Credit: Facepunch Studios