author: Conrad Hazi
Steam Has More Than One Billion Users
The number of user accounts on the Steam platform has exceeded one billion. Although it doesn't show that so many players use Steam, other statistics reveal that despite the pressure from the competition, Valve's platform is still doing pretty well.
The Steam Platform, which was launched in September 2003, after more than 15 years of existence has lived to see a billionth user account. As the Steam ID Finder website informs, the amusedsilentdragonfly user, who registered on April 28th, received a steamID3 with the value [U:1:100000000000], which indicates that his account is a billionth one. But there are no fanfares and champagne. Note that many millions of accounts on this platform have been created by spammers and fraudsters.
Valve likes statistics and still has a lot to boast about.
In January this year Valve announced that Steam has 90 million active users - a value similar to the number of people who regularly use Sony PlayStation Network. The Valve platform could also boast of 18.5 million online users at its peak. Meanwhile, statistics from the last 48 hours, which Steam publishes on its website, show that the number of logged-in players on the platform quite often exceeds 16 million. It is interesting to see how these results will develop in the near future, especially under the strong pressure from competitors like Epic Games Store.
Valve is aware that it must fight like never before. During this year's GDC conference, a handful of business information about Steam, its immediate future and long-term plans were presented. During the presentation a lot was said about further development of social functions, complete redesign of the game library and novelties for developers. Part of the presentation also focused on the platform's development in the growing markets, which may allow Steam to continue its long-term growth. The question remains open whether Steam will yield to competitive pressure and ultimately decide to lower its margin.
Direction Asia
Valve is currently looking towards Asia. For this reason, a special program for Internet cafes in this region is being developed to encourage players to register and use Steam on a regular basis. This type of service is very popular in Asia due to problems with home internet connections.
Whichever way you look at it, billions of Steam accounts have been reached with a lot of help from fictional accounts, but the figures presented from time to time prove that Steam is still the largest platform for digital games distribution on PCs in the world.