This is a calming game, and many people have turned to it recently because it produces excellent results!

Thousands of people wouldn’t trade the virtual Swiss landscapes for anything. In fact, it seems that there are more more of them every day. According to SteamDB, over 13 years after its 2012 release, Euro Truck Simulator 2 has surpassed the highest number of concurrent players ever recorded on Steam. Yesterday, the game hit a new all-time peak of 72,678 players. It’s rare for a seemingly niche game to remain this popular more than a decade after its release.

There are a few obvious reasons for this. The game has received two new DLCs: Nordic Horizons, which takes players across northern Scandinavia, and Forest Machinery, a smaller add-on filled with equipment such as wood chippers and mulchers. These aren’t for driving, but for hauling across open roads. After all, this is a truck game, so the cargo itself deserves attention.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 is praised for its realism — to the point that it has even been used in studies on driver fatigue. However, even if we can’t tell a manual gearbox from a snowplow, the game’s charm doesn’t lie strictly in its accuracy. Instead, it’s the meditative experience of driving long distances through picturesque scenery. In this sense, it resembles Power Wash Simulator, although here we’re not cleaning anything dirty, nor are there IP crossovers with special guests. Instead, we cover hundreds or thousands of kilometers on European roads.

SCS Software’s title launched on October 18, 2012, and is currently available with major discounts. The Premium Edition bundle is 50% off at €25, while the Deluxe Edition is 47% off at €44. The complete package can be purchased for €55 with a 48% discount. Meanwhile, the base game has a massive 75% discount until December 11, priced at just €5.

Source: PCGamer, SteamDB, Steam