Summary

  • Stellaris hit a peak player count of over 31K on Steam after the BioGenesis DLC launch.
  • BioGenesis introduced two Bioship shipsets, three new Origins, and the Behemoth Fury crisis.
  • The update suffers from technical issues, though, resulting in a 36% unfavorable user feedback on Steam.

Since the launch of the BioGenesis DLC, Stellaris has witnessed a significant jump in engagement on Steam, with its peak concurrent player count crossing 31K. BioGenesis is the first episode of the ninth season of Stellaris, which came out on May 5, 2025.

After much anticipation, Stellaris recently kicked off yet another season of the space simulation title that has been consistently refreshed since its 2016 arrival. Earlier in May, the devs released the season's first episode, BioGenesis, bringing a plethora of additional features to the game for a price. The salient features of the new content drop are two different Bioship shipsets, three new Origins, and the Behemoth Fury crisis, among other things. Alongside this DLC, Update 4.0 (Phoenix Update) was also rolled out, introducing changes related to Pops, Trade Routes, and more. As it turns out, the boost offered by these updates aided Stellaris to climb in popularity among the growing number of Steam users.

Stellaris - Best Traditions
Stellaris: Best Traditions To Pick

Traditions in Stellaris shape entire societies, but which ones are best for winning the game?

By 

Stellaris, on the May 5 launch of BioGenesis and Update 4.0, reached a peak player count of 31,681 on Steam. It was the highest number seen by Paradox Interactive's sci-fi game in about a year, with the last comparable peak of 35K users coming in May 2024. Similar to the latest bump in player engagement, the previous surge also coincided with the release of a major Stellaris update in the form of The Machine Age DLC, which was the first episode of Season 8. In the period in between, the Steam concurrent player count for the game has only risen twice: once in September, when the Cosmic Storms DLC (Season 8, third episode) came out, and then again in December.

Stellaris Player Count Exceeds 30K for the First Time in a Year

While Stellaris is experiencing one of its strongest periods in the past year, it hasn't been all rosy for the Paradox devs. That's because, as of late, there have been plenty of critical user reviews pouring in, especially since the launch day of the latest DLC. Since May 5, Stellaris's space-faring adventures have evidently been panned for containing annoying amounts of technical issues. This poor reception has resulted in the simulation title receiving 36% unfavorable user feedback on Steam in the past month, which is a far cry from its overall "Very Positive" rating that has only 13% unfavorable reviews.

Fortunately, the studio has been quick to address several issues in the game by shipping out three different patches since the BioGenesis expansion. Moreover, another update, Patch 4.0.5, is expected to improve Stellaris's strategy experience through a wide range of bug fixes, from the issue preventing Behemonths from laying eggs in combat to the issue regarding ship stats being displayed incorrectly upon changing modifiers.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image
Stellaris Tag Page Cover Art
8 /10

Stellaris
Display card tags widget
4X
Grand Strategy
Display card system widget
Systems
PC-1 PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
Display card community and brand rating widget Display card open critics widget
Top Critic Avg: 81 /100 Critics Rec: 77%
Display card main info widget
Released
May 9, 2016
ESRB
E10+ For Everyone 10+ due to Violent References, Mild Language
Publisher(s)
Paradox Interactive
Engine
Clausewitz Engine
Multiplayer
Online Co-Op
Number of Players
1-32
Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start Display card media widget end

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Genre(s)
4X, Grand Strategy