Expect: Steam to keep kicking butt
While Steam has been a focus of ongoing scrutiny and concern over how dominant it is (and, much like the storm surrounding mobile app stores, whether its 30 percent cut of every game sold is fair), what’s also true is that it’s never been more popular.
Despite rival storefronts like the Epic Games Store popping up in recent years, as well as other efforts from publishers to create their own launchers and ways of buying digital games on PC, gamers are still flocking to Valve’s online store and game management platform. Just last year Steam reached a new height for concurrent users: 30 million players. That’s like two Tokyos in terms of population count.
What does that mean for you? It means that Steam will continue to be an excellent place to grab games on PC without needing to download fledgling attempts at online storefronts and launchers. With Steam’s regular seasonal sales, simple refund process, and ease of connecting with friends, it’s not hard to imagine why the service has become such a standard for PC gaming.
2022 in general was a remarkable year for Steam. Based on Valve’s Steam Year In Review for 2022 update, the store saw a remarkable, nigh-unimaginable, count of 83,000 new customers per day. That’s about a packed football stadium-sized amount of people. Every. Day.
And now that games which were once locked to stores like (shudders) Origin or (vomits) the Xbox app are back on Steam, it’s a packed house and all your favorite games are here. 2023 is going to be no exception and we might see the platform set some new records.
