Umamusume instantly shatters Steam player count record because one new card released

Umamusume: Pretty Derby has already been a smash hit upon its Western release, but, in an unexpected twist, the game hit nearly 100k players on Steam just because players wanted one support card.

If you haven’t played Umamusume yet, the gameplay looks easy. You pick an Uma (horse girl), a set of cards, and you train them through a roguelike-esque career mode. However, there’s a lot of complexity and optimization to be had, and dedicated PvPers go in with a plan.

Kitasan Black, the card that released in the most recent Umamusume update at the time of writing, is so highly sought-after that there’s been a massive player base boom around its release.

The Steam player count peak nearly doubled overnight just because of one support card.

Umamusume shatters player count record due to one card

The Kitasan Black SSR card has pretty much everything you’d want: Increased hint frequency, a speed affinity, and the ability to increase the frequency at which friends participate in events they have an affinity for. If you’re trying to max out one stat in particular, this is the card you need.

However, it isn’t enough to get just one card. In order to get that training type buff, you’ll need to get the card to level 45. That requires 3 dupes with already low odds on the card, something that can cost potentially hundreds of dollars in real money.

This is where that player count boom comes in. Experienced Umamusume players knew this card was coming and opted not to play the game purely so they could save the launch Carats to roll for as many Kitasan Blacks as possible.

If you aren’t happy with the rolls you got, you can completely delete your account’s data and try again from scratch. It’s the only time that players can reroll for this card in that way, creating the perfect storm for a drastic player count boost.

From a prior peak of 50k all the way up to 87k, this was a massive change – and that’s without considering that Umamusume’s majority player base is likely on mobile considering it’s a gacha game.

The mere fact that enough players know about how important this specific card is shows not only how popular the game is, but also how many people take it seriously enough to try and obtain it.