Steam User Accounts hit 25 Million
We’ve known for some time now that Steam is growing in importance as a means of delivering PC games content, and the latest Steam figures for 2009 seem to bear that out.
We’ve known for some time now that Steam is growing in importance as a means of delivering PC games content, and the latest Steam figures for 2009 seem to bear that out.
Valve announced that over 25 million people have Steam accounts, with 10 million of those users also having Steam Community profiles. Overall the service saw a 25 per cent rise in users from the previous year, and the figures for concurrent users are equally impressive-peaking at 2.5 million. Average monthly player minutes now stand at more than 13 billion. Game sales on the platform saw an even bigger rise last year with a whooping 205 per cent increase, the fifth year running that Steam has seen 100% year by year sales growth.
Steam currently offers over 1,000 games from over 100 developers and publishers around the world, and some of last years biggest hits like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dawn of War II, and Empire: Total War were all released on the service, with Empire handling all it’s DLC on Steam. Increasing numbers of publishers and developers seem attracted to the features of the service, particularly with regards to anti-piracy. Few would argue the burgeoning importance of the service on the PC landscape and Valve has big plans for the future.
“With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years — such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks — we’ve seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform,” said Gabe Newell, president of Valve.” As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day.”
for all the latest videogames news, reviews, previews, interviews, features, opinion and a whole more. Our 
fan page is the best place to communicate with other fans of the NowGamer website.
12 million for WoW, another 5 to 8 million at least for all the games where you have to sign up with Steam, even though you might have bought the game at retail (Empire Total War?) and you see an enforced 20 million who haven’t spent a penny with Steam.
You only have to look at how often you see retro and indie games in Steam’s monthly Top 10′s (the big hoopla when they released the X-Com games last year, for example.) And how these games went to the top or near the top of the charts that month on Steam shows you how little they sell of AA Titles.
I don’t look at Steam’s Top 10′s very often, and it’s obvious not many of the media do either, or they wouldn’t keep crowing on about the millions of AAA games Steam are selling, when they are hardly in their Top 10′s and and they have never given out sales figures!
The last time I did look at a Steam’s Top 10 chart, late last year, I remember Killing Floor (a game I had never heard of at the time) was No.1 and in that same chart, Borderlands, a game that had been out for about a month, was at No.8…..!
Correction: Not WoW, I meant the Half Life range of titles.
Steam’s charts reflect its promotions, so Killing Floor had probably been on a special offer.
@The Relic, I only gave that as an example. When the X-Com games went to Steam they all went to No.1 in the charts, do you think THAT many bought those games? And yet they went straight to No.1! I can give so many examples of all the digital download sites, like D2d, Impulse, etc. Watch their charts regularly, like I took the time to do, and you will see.
The problem today is that the media and gamers want to make comments and statements without doing the research required. It’s not too difficult, takes about an hour a month, specifically looking, to notice all sorts of things……! That’s why I feel I am the canary, or the kid that insists the King has no clothes!
OK first thing first. The retail store in the UK, Game and GAMEstation (who are infact the same company) well their chart places on all systems, therefore the charts at retail are not worth a penny for a single customer- FACT. I should know I was a Training Manager for them some years back. Steam charts do infact add up, the X-Com games are loved and have a strong fan base and when the games went online all the gaming podcasts said to their userbase to buy them. Also they are cheap, in fact you can buy all XCom games for £2 on Steam right now, oh sorry does that not help your point?…
Valve who are Steam keep stats on everything they do, they also have a massive part of the marketshare that is as of now not included in the charts you see in any of the gaming magazines- just like WoW sub numbers, which maybe they should count towards the PC charts, prove PC Gaming isn’t dead.
Oh AAA games on Steam don’t sell, because they are cheaper at retail, look at MW2, its £39.99 on Steam- £34.99 at Game/GAMEstation and can be found for £30 at HMV in retail stores… HMV is £10 cheaper, gamers will buy it there. Didn’t you say you did some research?
Correction: Game and Gamestation SELL their chart places- I hit W instead of S
Here’s the top 10 on steam as of today 3/24/2010
#1 Battlefield Bad company 2
#2 Dragon Age origins: Awakening
#3 Dawn of War II chaos Rising
#4 Command and conquer 4
#5 Metro 2030
#6 Dragon Age Origins Digital Deluxe Edition
#7 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
#8 Assassins Creed 2
#9 Aliens vs predator
#10 Supreme Commander 2
http://store.steampowered.com/feeds/weeklytopsellers.xml
all of them are AAA titles. Perhaps you should look again at the direction Steam is taking. Maybe it was indie titles at the top a year ago but now almost every major computer game out there is down-loadable through steam. That is what this article was all about.
The rise of the down-loadable game is mostly due to the decline of stores like Gamestop refusing to sell PC titles anymore. With Steam support and weekend deals, it’s hard to miss.
and for your information I have many old timer gaming friends who consider X-com as one of their top ten games of all time. With its many sells (and cheap price on Steam) they are obviously not alone in this.
I’d like to add that I check steams top 10 about three times a week and have always seen a steady, consistent stream AAA titles at the top.
A year ago it was different, true, but the idea of digital downloading through valve has certainly been picking up… steam.
Any indie games that make it up there are the ever popular Braid. Plant vs Zombies is another I’ve seen at number ten. For the past few months (as I recall it) the top five games have always been AAA.
Over all steam is better then a console, seeing that they have cheaper games.
What's your opinion?
Ninety Nine Nights 2Tom Clancy's HAWX 2Mafia IIKane & Lynch 2: Dog DaysMadden NFL 11Alan Wake: The SignalRed Dead Redemption: Legends and KillersNaval Assault: The Killing TideToy Story 3Blacklight: Tango Down
Click here to view the 360 website
Click here to view the X360 website
Start The Party! (Move)Kung Fu Rider (Move)Sports Champions (Move)Mafia IIKane & Lynch 2: Dog DaysMadden NFL 11Toy Story 3SingularityNaughty BearTransformers: War For Cybertron
Click here to view the PLAY website
Mafia IIEmpires of SteelStrategic Command WWII: Global ConflictTheatre Of War 2: Kursk 1943StarCraft II: Wings Of LibertyNeed For Speed WorldAPBJust Cause 2Age of Conan: Rise of the GodslayerSam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse - Penal Zone
Click here to view the Total PC Gaming website