Valve has been in the news a lot lately. The digital storefront owner and (too occasional) game maker has just shared details on its latest project, an Overwatch style multiplayer hero shooter called Deadlock that looks to be coming out soon after running invite only tests. Less officially, we’ve also heard fresh rumblings about the eternally anticipated Half-Life 3, with speculation on a current iteration of the game picking up thanks to a voice actor’s CV. But, amidst all of this, a group of fans has looked back further into Valve’s history to make another kind of news, gathering together to give the first Half-Life‘s Blue Shift add on a new concurrent player record on Steam.
Half-Life received its Blue Shift expansion all the way back in 2001, but the FPS game has found more recent attention recently through the fan led Shifting the Bar event. The goal of the event was simple: set a new record for the most active Half-Life Blue Shift players in the game’s history.
This was coordinated by asking players to share a ShiftingtheBar hashtag and launch the Gearbox made expansion at the same time last Saturday August 24. The effort paid off. Though it’s been 23 years since it came out, Half-Life Blue Shift suddenly spiked on Saturday, reaching an all time peak player count of 3,145.
It’s since settled back down, with just 80 players registered as active at the time of writing, but the Shifting the Bar campaign seems to have done its job and helped keep Barney Calhoun in the public consciousness in 2024.
If this Blue Shift news has you in the mood for more like Half-Life, head on over to our lists of our favorite sci-fi games and old games on PC for more.
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