Savage and stylish FPS Ultrakill just obliterated its all-time Steam peak record, more than five years on from launch

For Ultrakill fans, the long wait for its eighth layer of shooter Hell is finally over. The new Fraud level has been dangled in front of players’ noses for a while now. After being hit with delays, fans endured a final round of torture as last-minute issues saw its release set back by several hours. However, it all seems to have been worth it. With a 97% score, Ultrakill was already one of the best FPS games on the entirety of Steam based on user reviews, and now it’s got a huge new player count record to shout about too.

Sitting somewhere between old school Doom, Titanfall, and an acid trip, Ultrakill’s rapid gameplay, mesmerizing visuals and style-based scoring system has made it a cult favorite. Even though it’s been out for more than five years, it’s been steadily adding to the game with its various layers, which are each based on the nine circles of Hell. As the old tale goes, layer number eight represents fraud, and that means this is Ultrakill’s penultimate major update before, presumably, ascending to the promised land of 1.0.

Whenever Ultrakill’s developer, Arsi ‘Hakita’ Patala, drops new content for the game, you’re bound to see a decent spike in Steam players. However, Fraud has been so highly anticipated, and the good word of Ultrakill has spread so wide, that its release on Tuesday February 24 resulted in a peak more than twice as big as its previous record. At its height, close to 72,000 players were in Ultrakill at once, which obliterates its previous all-time peak of 28,076.

As was excitedly pointed out in real time by David Oshry, the CEO of Ultrakill’s publisher New Blood Interactive, the influx of players saw the shooter surpass the likes of Apex Legends and Helldivers 2 on Steam. New Blood had already suggested last week that people “call out sick from work” and “skip school” to play the new level, and judging by that new player count record, thousands loyally obeyed those commands.

At the conclusion of Fraud, an end screen shows confirmation that “The final layer, Treachery, is still under development,” but given that there’s been a more than two-year gap between layer seven and layer eight, we might not see this finale materialize for some time. Lord only knows what the Steam peak will be when that finally drops.