Team Fortress 2 is experiencing something of a renaissance, as its player base returns en masse to the competitive multiplayer game, smashing the previous record for the concurrent player count in the process. However, this renaissance is marred by bots populating the servers, ruining the game for real players.
One of the defining competitive multiplayer games of the 2000s, Team Fortress 2 has seen over thirteen years of support from Valve. The game has climbed in popularity relatively steadily, sometimes jumping with major updates, and just hours ago hit an all-time peak in concurrent players.
As spotted by PCGamesN, game statistics source SteamDB clocked the concurrent player count at 151,253 today, an all-time record for the game. The cause for the surge is unclear, but there are two primary possibilities revolving around bots that have plagued the game's casual matches. Either the bots have been banished and the players are free to enjoy legitimate games, or there are so many bots that the player count is being driven up considerably.
The bot issues have gotten to the point of some bots advertising "bot immunity" services to players, in bot creators' attempts to profit off of their game-ruining deeds. Bots are a persistent issue in many online games, and the automated tools are used often in Team Fortress 2 and other free-to-play games to farm cosmetics to sell, disrupting in-game marketplaces.
Team Fortress 2's popularity comes amid bots overrunning casual matches, ruining the experience for new and seasoned players alike. Players report that Valve's attempts at removing bots from the game have so far been unsuccessful, which is worrying for the player base. Despite this, the new all-time concurrent player record is impressive and shows the dedication of the fanbase to the aging game.
The high player count shows how many players continue to show support for Team Fortress 2 after all these years. Team Fortress 2's climbing player count has seen jumps before, notably in 2011 when the game went free-to-play. The count has since dropped off steeply from its record high, but the fact that the high occurred at all shows how interested players still are in the design and gameplay of Team Fortress 2, and is likely part of the reason why Valve has continued to support the game for so long.
The steep dropoff and amount of bots may call into question the validity of the player count for some. Valve's history with Team Fortress 2's updates has been shaky at best, with some updates revered by players and others hating them.