Valve's Dead Card Game Artifact Just Had 12,000 Players Show Up Out of Nowhere In a bizarre twist for a game that's been basically dead since 2021, Artifact hit over 12,000 players on New Year's Day. The weirdest part? No one was actually playing it. Steam's numbers show the abandoned card game jumped from its usual couple hundred players to thousands overnight on December 31st. Then on January 3rd, like clockwork, they all vanished.
The same thing happened just weeks ago - around 14,000 players popped up on December 14th, stuck around for exactly two days, then disappeared on the 17th. Something doesn't add up here. The game's small but dedicated community hasn't seen any new faces in matches. The trade channels are still ghost towns. It's like these thousands of players exist only in Steam's numbers. Reddit's best guess? Bots. The player count stays suspiciously flat during these spikes - no ups and downs like you'd see with real people logging in and out.
Some think it might be pirates using Artifact to trick Steam's authentication, but the way everyone logs off at the exact same time makes even that theory shaky. Valve hasn't said anything about what's going on here. We asked, but they haven't gotten back to us. For those who don't remember, Artifact crashed and burned pretty spectacularly after launch in 2018. Players hated having to buy cards with real money on top of the $20 entry fee. Valve eventually made it free-to-play in 2021 before pulling the plug on development completely.
Mysterious Bot Activity Sparks 12,000 Player Surge in Abandoned Valve Game Artifact
2 min read
GameFused
Share

Related Articles

Vampire Survivors Creator on Success and Fun in Gaming
Luca Galante reveals how Vampire Survivors’ accidental success came from fun, not strategy. What’s next for 2025? You’ll want to know.

Monster Hunter Wilds Update Fixes Bizarre Part-Swap Bug
Monster Hunter Wilds’ next update drops March 10, fixing odd bugs like wrong monster parts dropping. Is this messy hit finally getting polished? Read on!

Monster Hunter Wilds Pushes Steam Past 40M Players
Steam just broke 40 million concurrent players, and Monster Hunter Wilds’ launch seems to be the big spark. With 1.38M players at its peak, it’s a wild ride—here’s what’s driving the hype.
Enjoyed this article?
Share it with fellow gamers!
Article Details
Categories, tags, and keywords for this article
Browse Category
Related Tags
Main Topic
Artifact player surge
Related Topics
Artifact game bot activityValve card game surgeSteam player count spikeArtifact Steam authenticationAbandoned game revivalGaming bot detectionDigital card game anomalySteam authentication exploit