Live Steam player count comparison, updated every 10 minutes. Both are Simulation / Strategy games.
Hearts of Iron IV is currently the more played game: 50,985 concurrent players on Steam right now vs 15,018 for Stellaris — about 3× more players. Hearts of Iron IV also has the better Steam reviews: 90% positive vs 86%. Across all tracked metrics, Hearts of Iron IV leads 9 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
Hearts of Iron IV has had the higher daily player count for the last 20 days — every day since Coilr began tracking both games.
Days tracked
20
Current streak
20 days
Hearts of Iron IV
Lead changes
0
Closest gap
44%
Apr 14, 2026
How this works: each game's daily average concurrent players (from Coilr's 10-minute Steam polls), compared on the 20 days where both games have data — whichever averages higher leads that day. methodology
| Metric | Hearts of Iron IV | Stellaris |
|---|---|---|
| Players right now | 50,985 | 15,018 |
| 24-hour peak | 58,499 | 16,471 |
| 7-day average | 38,811 | 11,578 |
| 30-day average | 39,500 | 12,659 |
| 30-day trend | +1% | — |
| Peak (tracked) | 71,856 | 19,071 |
| Steam reviews | 90% positive | 86% positive |
| Recent reviews (3 mo) | 87% positive | 77% positive |
| Total reviews | 373,345 | 196,391 |
| Owners (SteamSpy est.) | ~5,000,000 | ~2,000,000 |
| Release date | Jun 6, 2016 | May 9, 2016 |
| Price | $49.99 | $49.99 |
Full stats: Hearts of Iron IV · Stellaris · add more games to this comparison →
| Month | Hearts of Iron IV | Stellaris | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg | Peak | Avg | Peak | |
| Apr 2026 | 23,165 | 31,767 | 11,298 | 11,505 |
| May 2026 | 33,728 | 60,597 | — | — |
| Jun 2026 | 38,494 | 71,856 | — | — |
| Jul 2026 | 39,158 | 62,926 | 12,261 | 19,071 |
| Aug 2026 (so far) | 42,043 | 58,499 | 12,934 | 16,471 |
Monthly average and peak concurrent players on Steam, from Coilr's own tracking (10-minute polls, hourly beyond 30 days).
Hearts of Iron IV currently has more players: 50,985 concurrent players on Steam vs 15,018 for Stellaris — about 3× more players.
Over the last 30 days Hearts of Iron IV averaged 39,500 concurrent players and Stellaris averaged 12,659. By that measure Hearts of Iron IV is currently the bigger game.
Not in Coilr's head-to-head tracking: Hearts of Iron IV has had the higher daily average concurrent player count on Steam on every one of the 20 days both games have been tracked.
By Steam review score, Hearts of Iron IV rates higher: 90% positive across 373,345 reviews vs 86% across 196,391 for Stellaris. Hearts of Iron IV has the larger player base right now (50,985 vs 15,018 concurrent). Player counts, ratings, price and trend are compared side by side above.
Hearts of Iron IV averaged 39,500 concurrent players over the last 30 days, roughly flat vs the previous 30 days. Its highest tracked player count is 71,856.