For the past couple months, I've been having the sudden urge to play Factorio. I log onto Steam after being away for like a year and see that a couple old friends are playing Factorio. Then I see a post on Lemmy about Factorio's recent record breaking player count. Seems like everyone caught Factorio fever all at the same time.
Yeah, it's also the 2.0 update. There's a ton of changes even if you don't buy the DLC. Honestly, I can't comment much on the DLC because it's essentially expanding the game directly after launching a rocket, which was the previous "end goal." It adds 4 new planets, each with their own design challenges and things to unlock. I'm soon going to be heading to my first new planet, but I haven't done it yet.