Question 1

How can I compare player counts across Steam, Fortnite, and Roblox?

Accepted Answer

Use the cross-platform compare tool at howmanyareplaying.com/compare. Pick two titles from any combination of Steam games, Fortnite Creative islands, or Roblox experiences. The tool overlays 30 days of daily-peak concurrent user counts for both titles on a single chart so you can directly compare audience size and trends across platforms.

Question 2

Where do the Steam, Fortnite, and Roblox player counts come from?

Accepted Answer

Steam concurrent player counts come from Steam's public Web API — ISteamChartsService for the top games and GetNumberOfCurrentPlayers for live counts. Fortnite Creative island player counts are collected hourly from the public fortnite.gg /creative leaderboard, which sources its data from Epic's public Fortnite API. Roblox experience player counts come from the public Roblox explore-api 'Top Playing Now' sort — the same endpoint roblox.com itself calls. All three sources are polled hourly and historical data is stored locally so you can view trends over time.

Question 3

How do the genre sales estimates and cross-platform projections work?

Accepted Answer

Genre stats are computed bi-weekly from Steam's public Web API data — pricing, playtime, current and peak concurrent users, and review counts — to estimate Steam-only owners and gross sales per game (owners ≈ total Steam reviews × a per-game multiplier; gross ≈ owners × average price). Each game then has an optional cross-platform mix widget where you input the percentage of total sales attributable to Steam, PC Other, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. The widget anchors on the immutable Steam owners and price, then projects total cross-platform units and gross sales from your inputs. Steam is read-only (it shows the remainder so the four non-Steam shares sum to 100), and your inputs never affect the published Steam-only rankings or exports.

Question 4

How often is the player count data updated?

Accepted Answer

All three platform leaderboards refresh hourly. Steam pulls from Steam's Web API once per hour, Fortnite Creative island counts are collected from the fortnite.gg /creative leaderboard once per hour, and Roblox experience counts come from the Roblox explore-api once per hour. The 'last updated' timestamp is displayed on each leaderboard.

Question 5

Is How Many Are Playing free to use?

Accepted Answer

Yes. All leaderboards, the cross-platform compare tool, daily gaming news, and genre sales estimates are free to use without an account.