Steam Growth for 2009

[Hectic Glenn]

A press release from Valve outlines the extraordinary growth Steam has experienced in the past year with introduction of new technologies & massive new titles. Gabe said...

Steam turned five years old in March 2009. 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. 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.

A quick breakdown of how things have actually developed:

• During the last calendar year the platform surpassed 25 million active accounts, up 25% from the prior year. Of the 25 million accounts, over 10 million of those have profiles in the Steam Community.[br]
• In addition to the millions of new accounts created during the year, the peak number of concurrent users eclipsed the 2.5 million mark during the month of December, pushing Steam's average monthly player minutes to more than 13 billion.[br]
• Meanwhile, Steam now offers over 1,000 games from over 100 developers and publishers around the world. Unit sales for 2009 increased by more than 205%, marking the fifth straight year the platform has realized over 100% year-over-year growth in unit sales.[br]
• 2009 also delivered a wave of titles supported by Steamworks, in tangible and electronic versions, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dawn of War II, and Empire: Total War. Empire also used Steamworks for the delivery and management of its paid downloadable content releases.

 

[Joest]

Pretty awesome. Is there a link to the press release or was it emailed to HL2.net by Valve?

 

[-smash-]

Pretty awesome. Is there a link to the press release or was it emailed to HL2.net by Valve?

http://store.steampowered.com/news/3390/

 

[Mogi67]

Valve must be making obscene amounts of money

 

[StarBob]

Valve must be making obscene amounts of money

Valve is making obscene amounts of money.

That's why they give us DLC for free.

Because they know we're still gonna give them all our dollars and euros.

They just get to decide how to take it.

Well Played...

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Valve must be making obscene amounts of money

Probably can't hold a candle to Blizzard though...

 

[StarBob]

Probably can't hold a candle to Blizzard though...

I dunno, blizzard prolly has more overhead. Sure the make a lot of residuals from monthly pay but valve's getting revenue from a thousand titles on each sale and they just have to supply a limited bandwidth connection to move the file and they don't have nearly as much data to store. I'm sure blizzard has a much higher revenue but the profits are probably comprable.

 

[Stigmata]

Meanwhile, Steam now offers over 1,000 games from over 100 developers and publishers around the world. Unit sales for 2009 increased by more than 205%, marking the fifth straight year the platform has realized over 100% year-over-year growth in unit sales.

In other words, PC gaming isn't going to disappear anytime soon?

 

[Absinthe]

The gaming PC shall henceforth be known as the Steambox.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

In other words, PC gaming isn't going to disappear anytime soon?

Oh god dammit. Don't get people started with that shit again.

 

[Vegeta897]

The gaming PC shall henceforth be known as the Steambox.

Oh god.

 

[Warped]

I love Steam, so useful, its free, and all my games can be used on any PC I want wherever I'm at. You just can't compete with it and other services like Impulse and Direct2Drive fall by the wayside

 

[Shem]

Those statistics don't surprise me that much. Steam is just a great way to buy games and instantly download them, socialize with other people, and have great games with your friends.

 

[StarBob]

Steambox. I second it. It is now officially sanctioned and I will use it liberally. If it takes off I'm taking partial credit for it because I sanctioned it.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Not until Steam becomes an OS will I call it that.

 

[MFL]

Staem-powared vidya gaems.

All hail the mighty STEAMBOX.

 

[Some_God]

I still remember when it was called a "steaming pile of sh*t"

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

I still remember when it was called a "steaming pile of sh*t"

Doesn't someone here have that as a sigged gif?