Live Steam player count comparison, updated every 10 minutes. Both are Action games.
Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ is currently the more played game: 1,560 concurrent players on Steam right now vs 1,485 for Half-Life 2 — a similar number of players. Half-Life 2 counters with better Steam reviews: 98% positive vs 89%. Across all tracked metrics, Half-Life 2 leads 6 of 9.
Coilr tracks charts like this for every game — and playtime history for your own library.
Tracked by Coilr since April 2026 · Steam polled every 10 minutes · methodology
| Metric | Half-Life 2 | Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ |
|---|---|---|
| Players right now | 1,485 | 1,560 |
| 24-hour peak | 2,431 | 2,310 |
| 7-day average | 1,695 | 1,757 |
| 30-day average | 1,678 | 1,757 |
| 30-day trend | +26% | — |
| Peak (tracked) | 2,950 | 2,310 |
| Steam reviews | 98% positive | 89% positive |
| Recent reviews (3 mo) | 97% positive | 92% positive |
| Total reviews | 276,089 | 116,063 |
| Owners (SteamSpy est.) | ~10,000,000 | ~2,000,000 |
| Release date | Nov 15, 2004 | Oct 9, 2017 |
| Price | $9.99 | $49.99 |
Full stats: Half-Life 2 · Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ · add more games to this comparison →
| Month | Half-Life 2 | Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg | Peak | Avg | Peak | |
| Apr 2026 | 1,081 | 1,352 | 1,504 | 1,548 |
| May 2026 | 1,168 | 1,882 | — | — |
| Jun 2026 | 1,425 | 2,701 | — | — |
| Jul 2026 (so far) | 1,801 | 2,950 | 1,765 | 2,310 |
Monthly average and peak concurrent players on Steam, from Coilr's own tracking (10-minute polls, hourly beyond 30 days).
Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ currently has more players: 1,560 concurrent players on Steam vs 1,485 for Half-Life 2 — a similar number of players.
Over the last 30 days Half-Life 2 averaged 1,678 concurrent players and Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ averaged 1,757. By that measure Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ is currently the bigger game.
By Steam review score, Half-Life 2 rates higher: 98% positive across 276,089 reviews vs 89% across 116,063 for Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™. Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ has the larger player base right now (1,560 vs 1,485 concurrent). Player counts, ratings, price and trend are compared side by side above.
Half-Life 2 averaged 1,678 concurrent players over the last 30 days, up 26% vs the previous 30 days. Its highest tracked player count is 2,950.