Hearts of Iron 4 DLC drives grand strategy game to record player count

The release of Hearts of Iron 4 DLC By Blood Alone - and developer Paradox Interactive's decision to temporarily make it a free PC game to celebrate - have combined to push the historical WW2 game to its highest ever concurrent Steam player count.

Already one of the best grand strategy games on PC, Hearts of Iron 4 has seen plenty of updates since its 2016 release, and By Blood Alone represents the continuation of that process with a huge aircraft overhaul and new focus trees for Switzerland, Ethiopia, and Italy.