Steam now serving 25 million active accounts, game sales up 205%

Read the entire article here.

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.

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.

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.

"Steam turned five years old in March 2009," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "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."

While digital distribution has some issues that can certainly be improved (such as implementing some sort of re-sale system that benefits both the consumers and the publishers - and it is possible), there's no question that Steam is a massive success which recognized exactly what gamers wanted and provided it in an extremely fast, convenient and affordable way. Expect PC retail sales to decline even further as time goes on while Steam (and other DD services) continue to grow exponentially.

Your thoughts?

Speaking of which, definitely check out Steam's Weekend Deal:

• Freedom Force pack (includes Freedom Force and Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich) - 2€ / $2
• X-Com Complete Pack (includes X-Com: UFO Defense, X-Com: Terror From The Deep, X-Com: Interceptor, X-Com: Enforcer and X-Com: Apocalypse) - 2€ / $2
• Tropico 3 - 13,60€ / $13,60 (66% off)

Read the entire article here.

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.

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.

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.

"Steam turned five years old in March 2009," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "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."

While digital distribution has some issues that can certainly be improved (such as implementing some sort of re-sale system that benefits both the consumers and the publishers - and it is possible), there's no question that Steam is a massive success which recognized exactly what gamers wanted and provided it in an extremely fast, convenient and affordable way. Expect PC retail sales to decline even further as time goes on while Steam (and other DD services) continue to grow exponentially.

Your thoughts?

UpInFlames

It would be nice is Steam and other digitial distribution services started releasing real sales numbers.

The Xcom deal was irresistible to me, so I joined Steam today. Spent the past hour or two playing X-com 1, its just as awesome as I remember it being. My team's first mission were trying to take a fully intact alien ship that had landed on a farm. Half the team and the tank searched the farm. Thank's to the tank's high explosive rockets, the guys searching the farmland didn't have too hard a time of it (only one of them died). But three of the four people who raided the alien ship were killed and the fourth was badly wounded, though they managed to take the ship without damaging anything (which opened up lots of new avenues of research for the scientists).

I really hope the rumored sequel is real.

I've never understood why people seem to hate steam so much. They have great deals, reliable service, and a really convinient system. What's not to like? Even if you are some sort of staunch physical box/manual/maps/disc collector, you have to admit steam is a good service.

Steam is DRM.

It would be nice is Steam and other digitial distribution services started releasing real sales numbers.

The Xcom deal was irresistible to me, so I joined Steam today. Spent the past hour or two playing X-com 1, its just as awesome as I remember it being. My team's first mission were trying to take a fully intact alien ship that had landed on a farm. Half the team and the tank searched the farm. Thank's to the tank's high explosive rockets, the guys searching the farmland didn't have too hard a time of it (only one of them died). But three of the four people who raided the alien ship were killed and the fourth was badly wounded, though they managed to take the ship without damaging anything (which opened up lots of new avenues of research for the scientists).

I really hope the rumored sequel is real.CarnageHeart

According to Valve, the numbers are the property of their respective developers and publishers so they can't release them without permission. How much truth is in that statement, I don't know. One thing is clear, there doesn't seem to be a need for releasing DD numbers from the publisher's point of view because they always know exactly how much they sold. However, they need NPD (and others) to keep track of the retail sales - and even that information is not fully disclosed. I've heard that there is some interest at Valve and Direct2Drive to form some sort of DD chart.

I'm definitely going to pick up the X-Com pack. As a rabid turn-based strategy nut, the fact that I've never played this game has always bothered me.

By the way, if you like superhero comics and RPG's, I highly recommend Freedom Force. It's funny, it's clever, it's styIish, it's deep, it's awesome, it's 2 bucks.

Steam is DRM done right.

dchase2k8

Amen to that. :)

[QUOTE="CarnageHeart"]It would be nice is Steam and other digitial distribution services started releasing real sales numbers.

The Xcom deal was irresistible to me, so I joined Steam today. Spent the past hour or two playing X-com 1, its just as awesome as I remember it being. My team's first mission were trying to take a fully intact alien ship that had landed on a farm. Half the team and the tank searched the farm. Thank's to the tank's high explosive rockets, the guys searching the farmland didn't have too hard a time of it (only one of them died). But three of the four people who raided the alien ship were killed and the fourth was badly wounded, though they managed to take the ship without damaging anything (which opened up lots of new avenues of research for the scientists).

I really hope the rumored sequel is real.UpInFlames

According to Valve, the numbers are the property of their respective developers and publishers so they can't release them without permission. How much truth is in that statement, I don't know. One thing is clear, there doesn't seem to be a need for releasing DD numbers from the publisher's point of view because they always know exactly how much they sold. However, they need NPD (and others) to keep track of the retail sales - and even that information is not fully disclosed. I've heard that there is some interest at Valve and Direct2Drive to form some sort of DD chart.

I'm definitely going to pick up the X-Com pack. As a rabid turn-based strategy nut, the fact that I've never played this game has always bothered me.

By the way, if you like superhero comics and RPG's, I highly recommend Freedom Force. It's funny, it's clever, it's styIish, it's deep, it's awesome, it's 2 bucks.

X-Com is flat out amazing, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I'm going to pick up Freedom Force.

I've never understood why people seem to hate steam so much. They have great deals, reliable service, and a really convinient system. What's not to like? Even if you are some sort of staunch physical box/manual/maps/disc collector, you have to admit steam is a good service.

Brendissimo35

Cause steam is goddamn overpriced for people that live in Europe

Cause steam is goddamn overpriced for people that live in EuropeCombii

That depends. Yes, it was definitely better for us while the currency was universal (dollars) and while certain publishers equate the Euro with the dollar (which is what happens at retail anyway), a lot of them lessen the price by about 15%. So at worst, you're paying just as much as you would at retail (50€ for new releases). Personally, I'd never pay that much for a Steam game (and I rarely pay that much, period), but I still managed to amass a sizeable collection thanks to freqeuent and extremely irresistable deals.

Steam is DRM.

dchase2k8

The best type of DRM.

Steam is actually a very good service. I started using it in early 2009 and it has been a great experience so far. It's good to see that Valve is doing well, wouldn't want them to go out of business. :P

Steam is DRM.

dchase2k8

Yeah, but if you gotta have an evil DRM overlord, having it be Valve seems okay. That being said, I only buy stuff on Steam when they have really good deals. The problem is that they have really good deals all the time, and I end up buying more games than I could ever possibly play. I also really appreciate it when they have old, hard to find games like X-COM and old Lucasarts stuff.

i buy all my games from steam if i have the option, the last PC game i brought on disc was bioshock.

[QUOTE="dchase2k8"]Steam is DRM.AtomicTangerine

I would prefer to have a physical copy, but I'm also realistic.
I know you can't have your cake and eat it to.
Steam is by far the best alternative DRM that is in existence today, and I am ecstatic to see their sales increase so much year over year.

I know there are many who are reluctant to use it, as was I, but I want to see more PC exclusives, or at least mulitplatformers that are well optimized for the PC. That's been my motivation for adopting it.

The ideal next step would be for a GOOD alternatice to Steam, because competition breeds innovation.

May digital distribution gain an ever stronger foothold on the PC.