Steam was initially created by game developer Valve to solve the company’s problems with updating their online games, such as Counter-Strike. By late 2005, the platform was hosting third-party games which were made available for purchase and download. Soon after that, large developers such as Capcom started distributing their games on Steam as well. In mid-2022, there were over 46 thousand games available on the Steam, over 10 thousand games being published in 2021 alone.
Gaming audiences on Steam
In 2021, Steam reported an estimated 132 million monthly active users worldwide, an increase from 90 million just three years earlier. Moreover, the peak number of users on the platform at the same time, called peak concurrent users, has been on a steady increase as well. In 2021, Steam reached a record 27.4 million peak concurrent players after steadily increasing its user figures during the global coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The platform has managed to retain its post-COVID momentum and continues to grow its active audiences.The most popular games on Steam
The biggest game on Steam in 2021 was Counter Strike: Global Offensive. The multiplayer first person-shooter was ranked first in terms of peak concurrent users, topping out at nearly 1.2 million simultaneous players worldwide. CS:GO was first published in 2012 and has enjoyed constant popularity since then. Other popular titles of the year were the long-awaited action open world MMO New World, and MOBA classic Dota 2. Throughout the year, the most popular games regularly reach several hundred thousand concurrent players on average.How does Steam make money?
Steam generates most of its revenue through digital game sales via its platform. In 2022, it was estimated that Steam’s annual gaming revenue amounted to 8.88 billion U.S. dollars, down from more than 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. Platform sales account for over two thirds of Steam’s gaming revenue, while in-game microtransactions make up the rest. Industry estimates place Steam’s average revenue per user (ARPU) at 21.69 U.S. dollars. Additionally, game developers must pay Steam a cut of their revenues in order to sell their products through the platform The company has also branched out into producing gaming hardware, most notably the Steam Deck, a handheld gaming computer which was released in February 2022 to positive acclaim.Continued market reach and impact
The company reported that in 2021, Steam drew approximately 31.2 million new game buyers, and that game purchases on Steam increased by 27 percent compared to the previous year. Although Although Steam and its parent company Valve have stopped publishing public revenue figures for the platform, Steam still remains immensely influential as a digital storefront for online gaming purchases. Despite the market dominance of mobile gaming and the strong performance of console titles, Steam is still one of the strongest contenders in the PC gaming segment. A 2021 survey found that over a quarter of game developers worldwide generated 50 to 99 percent of their annual revenues via Steam.
