Rust News

After a resurgence on Twitch, Rust hits a new all-time player count record

Rust is one of the most venerable names in survival games, but it seems that the best days for Facepunch's nudity simulator are still ahead. Rust has made a big resurgence on Twitch thanks to an international array of big-name streamers, and the new visibility has led to a new all-time player peak for the game on Steam.

Rust reached a new peak concurrent player count of 134,483 today, as SteamDB shows. That's not massively higher than previous records - daily peaks have tended to run from 70k to 100k throughout 2020, reaching as high as 125k back in April - but it's impressive to see a game that's been around for the better part of a decade continue to hit new records.

On Twitch, however, Rust has been hitting astronomical heights, with peaks well over 1 million viewers. Prior to the past month, those peaks tended to be well under 100k. Those new view counts are buoyed by streamers including Shroud and xQc in a new communal server, for English-speaking audiences. A number of massive Spanish-language Twitch streamers have also been bringing their audiences along.

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Steam Global Top Sellers for the Week ending 3 January 2021

View more information and data on SteamDB

Steam Global Top Sellers for the Week ending 3 January 2021

View more information and data on SteamDB

Season's Beatings

From everyone at Facepunch, we'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! The Christmas Event is once again live! If you haven't been around for this before, here's what you can expect:

Every once in a while you will hear the sound of jingle bells. Run outside and look for a gift! Two gifts are spawned per player, in a radius of about 40m from where you are standing. Run up and bash it open to receive your Christmas presents. They come in three sizes: small, medium, and large. If you have enough small presents stashed, you can "trade up" to a medium or large. The contents of each present vary, but you'll find a mix of resources, weapons, and candy. We've also added wrapping paper allowing you to wrap up items as gifts to other players, perhaps sold in your vending machine...

Once again, you will be able to find Santa hats and reindeer antlers, both of which can be worn and provide a decent amount of protection. There’s also a lickable candy cane club, and two types of stockings. If you hang a stocking inside your base when the jingle bells ring the stocking will fill up with loot. The larger stocking has a higher chance for better items and both last around 5-10 refills.

More details on the new items can be found on the link

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Rust's December update introduces tech trees for workbenches

Rust's December update is a big one. It's replacing the experimentation system for blueprints with something that's a bit more reasonable: a workbench-based tech tree system, so that you can always be working toward the items you want to craft.

As Rust creator Garry Newman explains in this week's blog post, the tech tree update is meant to address the fact that the random experimentation system has proven to be frustrating and costly. Under that system, players could use scrap to 'experiment' and gain a random new blueprint.

Now you'll be able to see the entire tech tree of items available from a workbench's tech level. That way, you can find the item you want and work toward it, without having to worry that your precious scrap is going to go to waste on a blueprint you don't need or want. New players ought to have a much easier time getting set up with useful blueprints from now on, rather than "having to pray to the RNG gods to find a SAP in a crate," as Newman puts it. Great.

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