The popular online gaming platform continues to break records!
By EmmySun 23 Feb, 2020 7:55 PM
Everyone knows the name, and a large number of PC users know the application quite well. Steam, created by Valve, enjoys a high reputation, being the largest current library of games. The dominance of Steam has led to a number of other companies try to compete in the market, such as EA with Origin, and more recently, Epic with the Epic Store.
Back in 2019, Steam broke the record for number of games published on their platform, where they reached 30,000 games, with the number of games getting published on the platform increasing year upon year. In 2018, there were around 9,300 published, compared with 6,700 in 2017. These numbers are likley to include software published to the platform as well.
Then this year, Steam broke another record, reaching 19.1 million concurrent users on Sunday the 9th of February, which comes 14 days after they beat their own previous record of 18.8 million. This record hasn't been beaten by Steam since 2018, when they had 18.5 million concurrent users.
It remains very exciting to see how the numbers will develop in the coming years, if the platform will continue to go from strength to strength, or if compertition will steal some user away.
How many games will be released next year, and how many games make up your collection?
So many different platforms have tried to knock Steam off it's perch at the top. I remember Electronic Arts predicting that their new service would shut Steam down. Many have tried but Steam marches on.
Interesting article, I didn't realise how many concurrent users they'd had. I wonder if that's users actually playing games or if that's simply online users.
Quite an interesting article, Steam continues to amaze me at how it is continuing to grow. Truthfully, I've only used Steam for the past two years, I had no idea it had grown that much.
thank you for this very interesting article. I didn´t know about all these records nor did I know that so many players are using Steam. Although, I could have come to this conclusion because in my opinion Steam is THE gaming-platform, the reference, the ne plus ultra.
In his post Silek mentioned other platforms that tried or still try to conquer the throne Steam is currently sitting on. Just take a look at EA's Origin. It`s fine if you want to play FIFA, Battlefield or Need for Speed..., but for everything else you use Steam because it has lots more to offer. What is more I think it is a nuisance that sometimes you have to install a new platform in order to play a certain game.
It`s a bit like messaging apps that we use on our phones. There might be many, there might be good ones, even better ones, but who or what is the top dog? It´s WhatsApp. Will this change in the (near) future? I don´t know to be honest, but I do know that the others will have to climb a huge mountain if they want to succeed.
How many Steam games do I own? Well, I´ve got 82 in my library, but only a few are installed, e.g. Cities: Skylines, American Truck Simulator and of course Star Trek Online.
Thank you for the article. I didn't realize they had that many concurrent users, as Bedders said, I wonder if that was in-game users or simply online users. I personally only have 38 games on Steam, I think that as long as they continue to keep up with current trends they will command the market for a long time yet