A new challenger is rising in the ranks. Umamusume: Pretty Derby, the free-to-play sports sim game about horse girls, is racing up the Steam charts. The gacha game has been garnering attention since its launch in North America in June, thanks in part to streams from mainstream creators like Northernlion and Vinesauce. It hit its all-time-peak of just over 50,000 simultaneous players yesterday, July 9, and has been boasting new personal bests day after day.To put that number in perspective, that is just over double the number of concurrent players at launch. The game is now squarely in the top 50 most-played games on Steam, according to SteamDB. That puts it in competition with games like Elden Ring Nightreign and Warframe. Umamusume: Pretty Derby has been a phenomenon in Japan for a while, spawning tie-in anime, spin-off party games, and even a stage play. The titular Umamusume are women with a horse's speed and strength--they also sport pointy ears and tails. During the day, they race. At night, they perform in lavish pop concerts for their fans. The kicker is that each of the girl is based on an actual famous race horse. One of them, a lovable loser named Haru Urara, is still alive and fans have taking to visiting her at the farm where she now lives. The developer even put out a statement about proper etiquette for visiting a stable. It's bizarre things like this, the kind of fact that you couldn't say about any other game, that seem to be fueling Umamusume's word-of-mouth momentum.Continue Reading at GameSpot