Factorio is the game every engineer you know plays, so it probably wasn't going to be a huge surprise when the new expansion caused a big jump in player count. But what nobody expected was it would attract a peak of almost 100,000 players.
News in brief
- Factorio's expansion, Space Age, has attracted a peak of 91,801 players, exploding the game's usual weekly peaks
- The expansion takes the game into space, managing space routes and defending against asteroids
- Other factory games are enjoying a big boost in popularity
Factorio has always been something of a niche, as it takes a certain type of mind to really enjoying building, managing, and perfecting factories to a fine art. As such, it's always had a strong, but relatively small fanbase. That's why it must have come as a big surprise when its new expansion skyrocketed the game's player count to a whopping 91,801.
In fairness, it's easy to see why that many people are getting excited. Space Age, the new expansion, doubles the size of the original game, and gives additional content after the player is able to ascend into space. Once there, it's your job to find new planets, mine them for minerals, manage your fleet, and even defend against the ever-present risk of meteoroid strikes.
It's not the highest player count we've seen for a factory game. Recently, Satisfactory, a game with a similar remit, hit an enormous peak of 186,158 players after releasing version 1.0. That count has been slowly dropping, and it's thought Factorio's new expansion has been responsible for a more recent drop.
It's also worth pointing out that this sort of game attracts a certain type of audience, which is largely employed on a weekday basis. So it's going to worth keeping an eye on Factorio's player count over the weekend, as it's likely a horde of engineers will be dropping on it once they have some free time.
