Steam Had Massive Growth in 2021
Steam had a massive year in 2021, even managing to outdo a lot of the impressive stats it attained in 2020 when people spent most of their time inside due to the pandemic. It's no surprise that Steam is doing well given how important it is for PC gamers thanks to its almost limitless catalog of games and such, but the growth is rather unprecedented. In recent years, services like Origin, UPlay, and the far more competitive Epic Games Store have sprung up and have resulted in players being split between platforms by offering things like exclusives and free games. Although Steam still appears to be the dominant choice, it's hard to imagine Epic Games Store isn't eating into its growth even just slightly.
Nonetheless, Steam doesn't feel like it's… well, losing steam. Valve released Steam's 2021 year in review, boasting impressive figures that many platform holders would dream of. For example, the service had 69 million daily active users with 132 million monthly users. In 2021, the highest concurrent player count was a staggering 27.4 million players. In total, Valve says players spent almost 38 billion hours playing Steam, which is a 21% increase from 2020. The company noted that it delivered 33 "exabytes" of content to its users, which roughly equates to the amount of data that would be used if 330 million people downloaded a 100 GB game.
Valve also chalked up some of its staggering success to multiple Xbox and PlayStation games like Days Gone and Forza Horizon 5 coming to Steam, something that will likely continue to grow in the coming years. Steam's growth will likely only become more significant in 2022 as the release of the new Steam Deck will mean people don't have to be confined to a desk to get a good experience with the service. More players will be on the go and have the ability to access Steam anywhere they like, which will surely lead to an uptick in hours played, active users, and much more. On top of that, it seems like more Half-Life games could be coming sooner rather than later, which should also lead to immense activity on Steam.
How much did you use Steam in 2021 and are you getting a Steam Deck? Let me know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
[H/T PC Gamer]
