Steam’s hottest free game just hit a major milestone, and you can claim a gift to celebrate

Have you tried Once Human yet? 2024 has been a great year for survival games, with the likes of Palworld, Soulmask, and newcomer Dawn of Defiance competing with ongoing stalwarts such as Rust, Valheim, and Ark. Yet Once Human has an ace up its sleeve – it’s a free game on Steam. That means there’s virtually no barrier to entry, and it’s paying dividends as developer Starry Studio celebrates both a colossal player count milestone and a place on Valve’s best-selling chart. As thanks, you can even claim a free gift right now.

Once Human boasts a particularly intriguing setting, with a good twist of supernatural goings-on spread across its vast open world. That, combined with its availability as a free Steam game, has led to Starry Studio celebrating a total of ten million downloads just over one month since it first launched. This news also comes right after the arrival of its first major update, Once Human patch 1.1.

The developer’s in-game cosmetic microtransactions model and commitment to avoiding potential pay-to-win problems seems to be working, too. Not only has Once Human held consistently among the top ten most-played games on Steam, it also ranks at number five on the global top-selling games by revenue. Starry has quickly responded to player concerns with changes to Once Human cosmetics, and it appears to have paid off.

“We sincerely appreciate all the support from Metas, which has enabled us to reach the top of the Chart on Steam and achieve ten million downloads globally,” Starry Studio writes in a post to its social media platforms. “We are confident that we can provide a rich experience while staying true to our no pay-to-win approach. We will continue to collaborate closely with Metas to create an even better Once Human in the future.”

As thanks for the support, Starry Studio also has a free gift for all players. Simply head to the events page (by default, this should be on the F3 key), and you’ll be able to claim two Butterfly’s Emissary Crates, two 1,000 Starchrom Crates, and 100 Stardust Source. The reward is available from Sunday August 18 to Monday September 16, so make sure to grab it while you can.

If you’re on the hunt for even more resources, you’ll want to check the latest Once Human codes to see if any bonus goodies are on the table. There are also regular updates to the Once Human Twitch drops, so be sure to take a look at those as well.

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