Thousands of users experienced significant issues with the popular video game platform Steam, according to outage tracking site Downdetector, with over 11,000 users noting difficulties related to making purchases and connecting to Steam servers. The timing of the outage coincided with the highly anticipated release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, which had just gone live on the platform’s store. Valve, Steam’s parent company, has not yet issued a public statement regarding the incident.

This disruption underscores the growing importance of having robust network monitoring systems built on a foundation of 100% network visibility using solutions like NIKSUN. Outages like these - especially during major product launches - can frustrate users and damage brand trust. Organizations must implement solutions that leverage full packet capture and real-time intelligence across all OSI layers (L2-L7) to instantly detect anomalies, understand traffic patterns, and pinpoint root causes. Visibility into services like Web, DNS, authentication, and content delivery is critical for ensuring smooth, uninterrupted performance, especially during high-demand periods. Without this level of observability, businesses are flying blind - and risk being caught off guard by preventable outages. Read more about this story on our LinkedIn page