One of the things that I love more than gaming is the unknown. As someone with a lot of curiosity, there’s one thing on the internet that’s just too wild not to dig into: that one little dot on the map that nobody ever expected.
The mystery dot on the map…
If you’ve ever messed around with Steam’s Global Traffic Map (the one that shows where players are downloading games from), you’ll know it looks like a galaxy of yellow lights. It’s more or like Google Earth, but with active Steam players all around the world. It’s fun, and many use it just out of curiosity.
But what if I told you that, while the whole world is glowing, from Europe and Asia to the United States and even the smallest islands, somewhere between the darkest locations in the world, lies a single and very small dot: an active player in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Even if you’re not a gamer, that image (and thought) sticks with you. Because, you know, it raises a question: Who’s that person, really? And does North Korea actually have only one player in the whole country?
Steam has a public map that shows recent download activity by region. It doesn’t show usernames or games, just where Steam traffic exists. For years, people noticed the same three things, repeated again and again, like a pattern:
- North Korea shows one small spot of activity.
- It’s almost always around Pyongyang.
- It appears that the rest of the country stays completely dark.
This odd detail has been noticed and written about multiple times over the years, including by mainstream tech and gaming media like Yahoo Tech. And you know what? That single dot is where the whole legend begins.
North Korea is not like other countries when it comes to the internet. Most people there do not have access to the global internet. Instead, they use a closed internal network called Kwangmyong, which only works inside the country and does not connect to services like Google, YouTube, or Steam.
Only a very small group of people (government officials, researchers, or foreigners) have access to the real internet. So when Steam shows any activity at all inside North Korea, gamers, naturally, started asking questions.
But is it really just one person?
There’s only one important thing to remember: While you can see the location of an active user, Steam does not say there is actually only one user. What the map shows is traffic, not players.
That means that this little dot could mean multiple possible things, including:
- There’s only one person playing.
- Several people are playing using the same network.
- A government or research building is using it (for some reason).
- A foreign embassy is using it (another weird theory).
- Or.. It’s a technical quirk of how IP addresses are mapped.
IP geolocation isn’t perfect, especially in countries with extremely limited infrastructure. Experts in network mapping have pointed out that a single IP block can make activity look like it’s coming from one “user” when it’s not.
So the “only one Steam player” idea is more of a visual illusion than a confirmed fact.
Rumors… rumors… rumors…
Rumors have it that there’s a secret North Korean gamer grinding ranked matches at night, a hacker using a strange routing setup, someone inside a foreign embassy, or, the best of all of them, “what if it’s Kim Jong Un himself?”
But to be clear: There is zero evidence that North Korea’s leader uses Steam, plays games online, or is connected to that dot in any way. Even articles discussing the rumor treat it as internet folklore, not reality. Sure, it’s funny, it’s clickbait, but in the end, nothing has been officially confirmed.
Every time that little dot shows up, gamers notice.
Foreign embassies, researchers, and a very small number of approved foreigners in Pyongyang sometimes have limited access to the global internet. If someone in that situation opened Steam (even once), it could light up the map. Steam doesn’t care who you are. If traffic comes from an IP located in North Korea, the dot appears.
The future will tell.
But overall, seeing an entire country reduced to a single pixel feels both unreal and scary at the same time. It turns Steam (something we use every day) into a reminder of how different the world can be depending on where you’re born.
And honestly? There’s something haunting about imagining one quiet PC, somewhere in Pyongyang, opening Steam while millions of us queue for downloads without thinking twice.
Every time that little dot shows up, gamers notice. And until it disappears forever (or Valve explains it), we’ll keep wondering.
Because somewhere out there, hidden behind firewalls and borders, someone logged into Steam. And that alone is enough to keep the legend alive.
Here’s a cool related video that you can watch:
