Team Fortress 2 hits new all-time player peak after Summer 2023 update

The boys are back in town

Team Fortress 2 got a surprisingly large update this week, and it seems like players are flocking to it. Steam charts show Team Fortress 2 hitting an all-time player high following the Summer 2023 update.

Judging by Steam tracking site SteamDB, Valve’s team-based shooter climbed well above its previous player count records with the Summer 2023 addition to Team Fortress 2. Anecdotally, it seems like a lot of people are hopping back on, too.

What’s in the content update, though? It’s actually a lot of community content. A while back, Valve had put out a call for Steam Workshop submissions for a seasonal update. The Summer 2023 update looks to be the fruits of the community’s labor, bringing in 14 new maps and even fully incorporating a game mode, VSH—Versus Saxton Hale—an asymmetrical battle between a team and one souped-up Saxton.

Hopefully, this kind of renewed interest in Team Fortress 2 could see the classic game get some more attention. While it’s a big update, it’s also a primarily community-developed one. And the community clearly still loves this game, even through all the years. It’s hard  to think of many other (non-MMO) games that could have this kind of fervent resurgence.

Here’s the content updates for the Summer 2023 update. For the full patch notes, including the general gameplay and backend updates, head here.

Team Fortress 2 Summer 2023 update patch notes

Summer 2023!

• Featuring 14 new community maps: Sharkbay, Rotunda, Phoenix, Cashworks, Venice, Reckoner, Sulfur, Hardwood, Pelican Peak, Selbyen, VSH Tiny Rock, VSH Distillery, VSH Skirmish, and VSH Nucleus
• Added the Summer 2023 Cosmetic Case
  • Contains 25 new community-contributed items
• Added 6 new community-contributed taunts to the Mann Co. Store
  • Taunt: Killer Joke
  • Taunt: Star-Spangled Strategy
  • Taunt: The Head Doctor
  • Taunt: Tuefort Tango
  • Taunt: The Road Rager
  • Taunt: The Killer Signature
• Added 20 new community-created Unusual effects
  • 12 new effects for Unusual hats
  • 8 new effects for Unusual taunts
• Added the Summer 2023 War Paint Case
  • Contains 10 new community-created War Paints that make-up the Summer 2023 Collection
  • Has a chance to give a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus item
• All cosmetic and taunt cases will grant Summer 2023 Unusual effects instead of their normal Unusual effects during the Summer event. This does not include crates.
• The Summer event runs through September 15th, 2023

Eric Van Allen

Senior Editor – While Eric’s been writing about games since 2014, he’s been playing them for a lot longer. Usually found grinding RPG battles, digging into an indie gem, or hanging out around the Limsa Aethryte.

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