Steam surprise free download has blown up, and we can see why

Steam’s latest free-to-play title has absolutely taken the platform by storm, peaking at roughly 159,000 concurrent players mere days after it released.

Last week, there was only one thing on my mind every single day. Before I went to sleep, and after I woke up, all I’d be thinking about was playing this one, single game: Rematch.

If you’ve not heard of it, don’t worry… you will. It’s not even properly out yet, but it’s already hitting the big numbers on Steam, and basically every content creator in my YouTube feed seems to be covering it.

From May 28th to June 2nd, this game was pulling in roughly 100,000 players every hour, with a peak of nearly 160,000 concurrent players on May 29th. So what’s got everyone so obsessed?

I say this as someone who isn’t really a sports guy, inside and outside of video games, but this is just the perfect arcade football game. It feels like a mix of Rocket League and FIFA Street, and it prioritises looking cool and being stylish with your goals and plays over everything else.

Oh, and did I mention it’s made by the folks behind both Sifu and Absolver? I don’t know what made Sloclap pivot from making indie, accurate kung-fu games and into sports games, but I’m so glad they did.

Unfortunately, I have a bit of bad news for you if this is the first you’re hearing about Rematch; the free beta just ended.

However, I do have some good news for you too; the full game comes out in just over two weeks, on June 19.

I genuinely cannot recommend this one enough. I haven’t had this much fun playing a multiplayer game in years. I’ll be there on day one (just don’t let me be goalie, I suck at defence).

• Stellar Blade mods have arrived, are as NSFW as you'd expect
• Red Dead Redemption meets Fallout in this free Steam download
• Cyberpunk 2077 meets Max Payne in one of the best looking games we’ve seen in years
• Steam RPG is free and yours to keep forever for a limited-time