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Steam has broken 30 million concurrently online users for the first time ever

ArtHands said:
I been keeping tracking. For anyone else interested:

January 2012: 5 million
January 2013: 6.6 million
December 2013: 7 million
June 2014: 8 million
March 2015: 9 million
June 2015: 10 million
November 2015: 13.4 million
January 2017: 14 million
September 16, 2017: 15 million
December 25, 2017: 16.2 million
January 2018: 18 million
January 14, 2018: 18,537,490
February 02, 2020: 18,801,944
February 09, 2020: 19.1 million
March 15, 2020: 20.3 million
March 16, 2020: 20,313,451
March 20, 2020: 21.1 million
March 21, 2020: 22 million
April 2020: 24.54 million
December 12, 2020: 24,776,635
January 02, 2021: 25,413,392
January 10, 2022: 28,230,853
October 24, 2022: 30,032,005
Click to expand...
I wonder what happened in 2015...
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Some people in gaming care a lot about who and how other people play games. They think about other people and compare it against themselves. If their situation looks more favourable due to reasons XYZ, it makes them feel better. If the other group of gamers playing the same games has the upper hand, they feel like shit.

It's like DVD vs BR. Everyone had a DVD player, but when BR players came out it took time for people to upgrade. You pay more for a BR player, but the quality is much better. As time passes, more and more people get BR players so for the unhinged DVD owner they feel like shit more and more because everyone is blowing past them with better visuals and sound.

So to make themselves happy they'll bring things up like a BR player costs more money, you need a 1080p TV and good sound system to get the most out of it, so acording to his calculations it's not worth it. All while his DVD player on his 150 lb CRT or crappy 720p "HD Ready" TV is better.

Like everyone, I moved up from CRT to low end 720p to 1080p to 4k. I simply enjoy doing it for myself to enjoy it. Who gives a shit what other people have or dont have. That's their choice what to spend and how to enjoy their own purchases.
Click to expand...
I think if people genuinely feel bad about someone having better things then life will be one rocky ride, and very expensive since you need to be on your toes to have that #1 best thing all the time in an industry that is constantly moving.
I only just upgraded to 1440p this year btw lol
 
ronan-sheesh-sheesh.gif
 
rofif said:
seems there are 106 mil psn users but no idea how many concurrent.
Click to expand...
only 106 huh, i'm guessing you didn't want to say the numbers you found for steam during your mad googling. Let me help you out.

observatorial.com

Steam closed 2021 with 132 million active players per month and exceeding the global figures of the previous year

Steam, Valve's PC video game platform, has presented the data recorded in 2021, which shows a great increase with respect to the previous year, since the 132 mi
observatorial.com observatorial.com
 
hlm666 said:
only 106 huh, i'm guessing you didn't want to say the numbers you found for steam during your mad googling. Let me help you out.

observatorial.com

Steam closed 2021 with 132 million active players per month and exceeding the global figures of the previous year

Steam, Valve's PC video game platform, has presented the data recorded in 2021, which shows a great increase with respect to the previous year, since the 132 mi
observatorial.com observatorial.com
Click to expand...
The difference is that Steam app auto starts when you boot your PC even if you don't go to Steam to use it, so you count as active user even if not using.
 
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yurinka said:
The difference is that Steam app auto starts when you boot your PC even if you don't go to Steam to use it, so you count as active user even if not using.
Click to expand...

A user with steam installed probably has games that they play installed. That makes it an accurate measure of active accounts versus dead/abandoned accounts.
 
Steam desperately needs a UI/UX overhaul. It's a mess.

Regardless, glad to see it. The more popular PC gaming is, the more likely a game is to land there and won't have the potential for being trapped forever on an old console. Some of my absolute favorite games of all time are permanently stuck on old hardware.

MGS4
Bloodborne
The good versions of Ninja Gaiden 1/2
Code Veronica
Metroid (pick one)
Legend of Zelda (several titles)

There are a lot more and a ton of games I've never had a chance to play in the first place.

I find it baffling that older games, unlike almost any other medium, are still so difficult to access on the whole when it comes to consoles. You have to either hold onto super old hardware (which I do) or pray the game you want gets ported.
Emulation has never been easier, but ROMs seem to be harder and harder to get (maybe that's just because I haven't been emulating for several years and don't know where to look anymore).

PC gaming offers significantly better access to older PC games (on top of the other benefits).

I love consoles and won't ever be a "PC only" guy, but they have a ton of problems that I don't see a way out of.
 
Lasha said:
A user with steam installed probably has games that they play installed. That makes it an accurate measure of active accounts versus dead/abandoned accounts.
Click to expand...
Yes, in basically all cases someone who has the Steam app installed means that had to install to play some games.

What I mean is that maybe that person didn't buy or play a game on Steam for many months or years but the Steam apps keeps booting at startup every time they turn on their PC and count for Steam MAU even if they won't go to Steam in that session to play or buy and is something they dind't do during months or years.

Same happens with other PC gaming store launchers, like the MS one. I think that the MAUs would only make sense to consider them if they only would count when people is really using the launcher or store, or playing games. And don't count when the app started automatically because it was added by default to the startup and the user doesn't know or is lazy to remove it from startup, or doesn't care about it.

Phone apps for these stores/platforms, like the PlayStation apps also are counting for these MAU. Something that I think -again- doesn't make sense.
 
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yurinka said:
What I mean is that maybe that person didn't buy or play a game on Steam for many months or years but the Steam apps keeps booting at startup every time they turn on their PC and count for Steam MAU even if they won't go to Steam in that session to play or buy and is something they dind't do during months or years.
Click to expand...
I removed steam from auto open on boot and many other users i'm sure did the same.
 
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Regardless if these "Uncles" with Steam on their PC are included in the Active Users number, Valve has seen a huge increase in players spending on games in 2021 and 2.6M first-time purchasers each month of 2021. Time spent playing games on Steam is also increasing year on year.

From their 2021 Yearly review:

"2021 was successful even in comparison to 2020's unprecedented growth. Players spent almost 38 billion hours on Steam in 2021 - a 21% increase over 2020. (That's a whopping 4.3 million years of playtime.)"
"Player spending on games rose 27% compared to 2020, growing even more than playtime did. That growth wasn't just due to existing players, either - Steam saw 2.6M first-time purchasers each month of 2021, roughly the same rate of new purchaser growth we saw in 2020 as the global pandemic unfolded."

2022 Year in Review will be interesting.

Nothing stops the Gabe Train.
maxresdefault.jpg
 
yurinka said:
Yes, in basically all cases someone who has the Steam app installed means that had to install to play some games.

What I mean is that maybe that person didn't buy or play a game on Steam for many months or years but the Steam apps keeps booting at startup every time they turn on their PC and count for Steam MAU even if they won't go to Steam in that session to play or buy and is something they dind't do during months or years.

Same happens with other PC gaming store launchers, like the MS one. I think that the MAUs would only make sense to consider them if they only would count when people is really using the launcher or store, or playing games. And don't count when the app started automatically because it was added by default to the startup and the user doesn't know or is lazy to remove it from startup, or doesn't care about it.

Phone apps for these stores/platforms, like the PlayStation apps also are counting for these MAU. Something that I think -again- doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...
MAU isnt even a good indicator. All that tells is how many people use it periodically.

A more accurate measure for success is something like $$$/active user multiplied by active users.

Switch/PC/Xbox/PS/cell phones probably all have different revenue per user. Mobile gaming is like 50% of gaming sales but there's shit loads of people on phones playing games. The $$$/active user is probably the least. But Steam might be the most $$$/active user since they backlog on Steam and GOG deals which a typical console gamers doesnt compare against.
 
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The amount of inexpensive indie games that run on potato computers is surely doing its work, too. That plus the pandemic, more people at home, and a relatively easy setup compared to let's say ten years ago.
 
rofif said:
seems there are 106 mil psn users but no idea how many concurrent.
It's not about PS winning.
It's only about pc. It gets too much leeway for all the times you have to use pcgamingwiki and crazy hardware prices.

just at principle. From my 1997 pc gaming perspective, I am mad what this industry had become. It's at the same time amazing and best it has ever been... and the worst, fake enthusiast milking. Maybe I just miss 90s pc gaming :p
The way devs treat pc gaming
the way hardware vendors milk it
Microsoft milks it... everyone milks and shits on pc gaming and yet the pc gming crowd is the proudest. Why? Because they spend a lot of money on it?
Pc doesn't deserve this attention imo.
Click to expand...

you're malding in every PC thread. It's sad.

yurinka said:
Yes, in basically all cases someone who has the Steam app installed means that had to install to play some games.

What I mean is that maybe that person didn't buy or play a game on Steam for many months or years but the Steam apps keeps booting at startup every time they turn on their PC and count for Steam MAU even if they won't go to Steam in that session to play or buy and is something they dind't do during months or years.

Same happens with other PC gaming store launchers, like the MS one. I think that the MAUs would only make sense to consider them if they only would count when people is really using the launcher or store, or playing games. And don't count when the app started automatically because it was added by default to the startup and the user doesn't know or is lazy to remove it from startup, or doesn't care about it.

Phone apps for these stores/platforms, like the PlayStation apps also are counting for these MAU. Something that I think -again- doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

This is wrong tho. It only counts you as an active user if you played a game that month.
 
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I was playing Elden Ring at the time. On my Steam Deck no less. Part of history. I'm going to tell my grandkids when they ask what I achieved in life.
 
yurinka said:
No, it's the count of the active users of the Steam platform, which includes the launcher, website, Steamdeck etc.
Click to expand...

Yea, for the concurrent numbers. In order to be considered a monthly active user you had to have a launched a game that month. Last numbers they released were 132M MAU and it's surely higher now.


store.steampowered.com

Steamworks Development - Steam - 2021 Year in Review - Steam News

A look back at 2021's biggest updates, events, and new features.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
 
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yurinka said:
Yes, in basically all cases someone who has the Steam app installed means that had to install to play some games.

What I mean is that maybe that person didn't buy or play a game on Steam for many months or years but the Steam apps keeps booting at startup every time they turn on their PC and count for Steam MAU even if they won't go to Steam in that session to play or buy and is something they dind't do during months or years.

Same happens with other PC gaming store launchers, like the MS one. I think that the MAUs would only make sense to consider them if they only would count when people is really using the launcher or store, or playing games. And don't count when the app started automatically because it was added by default to the startup and the user doesn't know or is lazy to remove it from startup, or doesn't care about it.

Phone apps for these stores/platforms, like the PlayStation apps also are counting for these MAU. Something that I think -again- doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...
Good thing valve give you more info than sony/ms/epic

"Player spending on games rose 27% compared to 2020, growing even more than playtime did. That growth wasn't just due to existing players, either - Steam saw 2.6M first-time purchasers each month of 2021, roughly the same rate of new purchaser growth we saw in 2020 as the global pandemic unfolded."

"2021's Summer Sale was the biggest event in Steam's history, with revenue for game developers growing 13% over Summer Sale 2020. But that record only stood for a few months, because the 2021 Winter Sale was even bigger. And Winter Sale 2021 also welcomed first-time purchasers to the platform: 2.3 million people all bought a game on Steam for the first time in the same 14-day window."

and valve appreciates sony and microsofts hand in growing steam.

"It's also worth pointing out that 2021 saw the addition of some beloved formerly-console-exclusive games from our friends at Sony and Microsoft. There are no bad years to be a PC gamer, but 2021 was an especially good one. From Days Gone to Forza Horizon 5, players on PC got to enjoy an incredible lineup from some of the best first-party console studios on the planet. That explosion of fresh content is a testament to the open, competitive nature of the PC ecosystem, where players have the broadest choice of what hardware to play on, what stores and services to use, and which games to play."
 
ArtHands said:
I been keeping tracking. For anyone else interested:

January 2012: 5 million
January 2013: 6.6 million
December 2013: 7 million
June 2014: 8 million
March 2015: 9 million
June 2015: 10 million
November 2015: 13.4 million
January 2017: 14 million
September 16, 2017: 15 million
December 25, 2017: 16.2 million
January 2018: 18 million
January 14, 2018: 18,537,490
February 02, 2020: 18,801,944
February 09, 2020: 19.1 million
March 15, 2020: 20.3 million
March 16, 2020: 20,313,451
March 20, 2020: 21.1 million
March 21, 2020: 22 million
April 2020: 24.54 million
December 12, 2020: 24,776,635
January 02, 2021: 25,413,392
January 10, 2022: 28,230,853
October 24, 2022: 30,032,005
Click to expand...
Looks like Covid helped a lot but the growth has now slowed down.
 
FireFistAce said:
Looks like Covid helped a lot but the growth has now slowed down.
Click to expand...

Grew by 5 million over 2 months when COVID lockdown started worldwide

Feb 09, 2020: 19,107,803 (19.1m)
Mar 15, 2020: 20,313,451 (20.3m)
Mar 20, 2020: 21,359,817 (21.3m)
Mar 21, 2020: 22,379,088 (22.4m)
Mar 29, 2020: 23,434,674 (23.4m)
Apr 03, 2020: 24,154,193 (24.1m)
 
hlm666 said:
Good thing valve give you more info than sony/ms/epic

"Player spending on games rose 27% compared to 2020, growing even more than playtime did. That growth wasn't just due to existing players, either - Steam saw 2.6M first-time purchasers each month of 2021, roughly the same rate of new purchaser growth we saw in 2020 as the global pandemic unfolded."

"2021's Summer Sale was the biggest event in Steam's history, with revenue for game developers growing 13% over Summer Sale 2020. But that record only stood for a few months, because the 2021 Winter Sale was even bigger. And Winter Sale 2021 also welcomed first-time purchasers to the platform: 2.3 million people all bought a game on Steam for the first time in the same 14-day window."

and valve appreciates sony and microsofts hand in growing steam.

"It's also worth pointing out that 2021 saw the addition of some beloved formerly-console-exclusive games from our friends at Sony and Microsoft. There are no bad years to be a PC gamer, but 2021 was an especially good one. From Days Gone to Forza Horizon 5, players on PC got to enjoy an incredible lineup from some of the best first-party console studios on the planet. That explosion of fresh content is a testament to the open, competitive nature of the PC ecosystem, where players have the broadest choice of what hardware to play on, what stores and services to use, and which games to play."
Click to expand...
BennyBlanco said:
Yea, for the concurrent numbers. In order to be considered a monthly active user you had to have a launched a game that month. Last numbers they released were 132M MAU and it's surely higher now.


store.steampowered.com

Steamworks Development - Steam - 2021 Year in Review - Steam News

A look back at 2021's biggest updates, events, and new features.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
Click to expand...
Unlike Sony or MS, they don't explain there what do they consider their MAU or CCU.
 
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FireFistAce said:
Sony does - Monthly Active Users is an estimated total number of unique accounts that player games or used services on the PlayStation Network during the last month of the quarter.
Click to expand...
I meant that Steam doen't explain there what do they consider their MAU or CCU. Unlike Sony or MS, who specify their MAU.

In the case of PSN is the amount of PSN users that have been active during a month. In general, website or app also counts and no need to play a game.
 
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FireFistAce said:
Sony does - Monthly Active Users is an estimated total number of unique accounts that player games or used services on the PlayStation Network during the last month of the quarter.
Click to expand...

So if we just use it for netflix or spotify it count towards monthly active users too
 
Stuart360 said:
Jumped 10mil in 2 years since 2020. I wonder how many console gamers jumped ship.
Click to expand...

Console has been selling as fast as possible during that time too though. Likely just a case of Covid causing people to game more (nothing better to do) and now even with things returning to a normal state those habits have been established.
 
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