Interesting look at the growth of Steam

[Kanadei]

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/07/the...omment-3387385

Before people hate on this because it's Kotaku, try and remember that the AU division of Kotaku is edited by Mark Serrels (who wrote this article) who is an award-winning IT journalist. While Kotaku is mainly click bait trash in the US (and we get plenty of that reposted here too), there are actually some decent articles in AU like this one.

One thing that is really interesting is looking at the growth of DotA compared to the growth of steam. I don't want to imply correlation = causation but the two are definitely connected in some shape or form.

Still shows that we have a lot of ground to cover before Steam (at least in terms of concurrent users and variety of games) challenges Xbox Live or PSN but at least it's moving at a good clip.

Thoughts?

[godgunner]

Well I pretty sure the whole reason valve wanted DotA in the first place was to get more users to steam.
They saw how many people converted with Team Fortress 2 when it went free2play.
Plus they saw the huge growth of LoL so they wanted another game to Boost the user base.
All part of a strategic plan to get more users. Just like how Blizzard make all their games have extras that go into
many of their other games. It makes gamers more likely to stick around and spend in the long run.

[Edge-]

Still shows that we have a lot of ground to cover before Steam (at least in terms of concurrent users and variety of games) challenges Xbox Live or PSN but at least it's moving at a good clip.

http://www.vg247.com/2015/02/24/stea...ncurrent-peak/

FYI Steam has already surpassed either PS3 or Xbox 360 (both of which have larger install bases than PS4/Xbone) in total active accounts, as none of those consoles even moved 125M units, much less had that many active users. I haven't been able to track down any numbers for any of the consoles that come remotely close to its peak concurrent users, either.

[Tech614]

http://www.vg247.com/2015/02/24/stea...ncurrent-peak/

FYI Steam has already surpassed either PS3 or Xbox 360 (both of which have larger install bases than PS4/Xbone) in total active accounts, as none of those consoles even moved 125M units, much less had that many active users. I haven't been able to track down any numbers for any of the consoles that come remotely close to its peak concurrent users, either.

The vast majority of the steam player base(the ones that are in games anyway and not idling with the app open) at any given time in in 3 total games, 2 are f2p and the other is always on fire sales to increase the install base. There is no doubt Dota 2, CSGO and TF2 are monsters in the PC gaming world, but as far as traditional AAA gaming is concerned steam's number of players in those games is dwarfed by the XBL and PSN numbers.

So yea, find me what those 125 million active accounts average spending on steam a month. I would wager it's a drop in the bucket compared to the average income from PSN and XBL users a month and no, I'm not thinking sub fees in that or considering them.

Also I can't believe we are talking "peak concurrent users" seriously when a hell of a lot of people never turn off their PCs and steam auto boots on start up for many many others. Count the number of players in game at any given time, that is the only number that matters.

[Edge-]

So yea, find me what those 125 million active accounts average spending on steam a month. I would wager it's a drop in the bucket compared to the average income from PSN and XBL users a month and no, I'm not thinking sub fees in that or considering them.

Overall for Valve, when you include sales of DLC/Steam cash for stuff in F2P games cash shops/marketplace cuts in addition to game sales, I wouldn't be surprised if Steam is out-earning Sony/Microsoft in all but November when the biggest AAA games are launched.

I'd love to look at data from the big 3 (since Nintendo is off doing their own thing as per usual) in terms of sales etcl, would be fantastically interesting.

[Stonecloak]

The vast majority of the steam player base(the ones that are in games anyway and not idling with the app open) at any given time in in 3 total games, 2 are f2p and the other is always on fire sales to increase the install base. There is no doubt Dota 2, CSGO and TF2 are monsters in the PC gaming world, but as far as traditional AAA gaming is concerned steam's number of players in those games is dwarfed by the XBL and PSN numbers.

So yea, find me what those 125 million active accounts average spending on steam a month. I would wager it's a drop in the bucket compared to the average income from PSN and XBL users a month and no, I'm not thinking sub fees in that or considering them.

Also I can't believe we are talking "peak concurrent users" seriously when a hell of a lot of people never turn off their PCs and steam auto boots on start up for many many others. Count the number of players in game at any given time, that is the only number that matters.

OP mentioned concurrent users and variety of games. Not revenue. So I'm not sure where your getting at.

[Deleted]

The vast majority of the steam player base(the ones that are in games anyway and not idling with the app open) at any given time in in 3 total games, 2 are f2p and the other is always on fire sales to increase the install base. There is no doubt Dota 2, CSGO and TF2 are monsters in the PC gaming world, but as far as traditional AAA gaming is concerned steam's number of players in those games is dwarfed by the XBL and PSN numbers.

So yea, find me what those 125 million active accounts average spending on steam a month. I would wager it's a drop in the bucket compared to the average income from PSN and XBL users a month and no, I'm not thinking sub fees in that or considering them.

Also I can't believe we are talking "peak concurrent users" seriously when a hell of a lot of people never turn off their PCs and steam auto boots on start up for many many others. Count the number of players in game at any given time, that is the only number that matters.

Are you trying to compare 3 steam games against the entire catalogue for the 2 main console groups?

[Kanadei]

http://www.vg247.com/2015/02/24/stea...ncurrent-peak/

FYI Steam has already surpassed either PS3 or Xbox 360 (both of which have larger install bases than PS4/Xbone) in total active accounts, as none of those consoles even moved 125M units, much less had that many active users. I haven't been able to track down any numbers for any of the consoles that come remotely close to its peak concurrent users, either.

Interesting to see some more numbers on this, although obviously active accounts is a misnomer since steam accounts are free and the others are tied to systems/paid accounts respectively.

- - - Updated - - -

Also I can't believe we are talking "peak concurrent users" seriously when a hell of a lot of people never turn off their PCs and steam auto boots on start up for many many others. Count the number of players in game at any given time, that is the only number that matters.

I think DotA 2 is generally around 10-12 million monthly unique users for what its worth.

- - - Updated - - -

Are you trying to compare 3 steam games against the entire catalogue for the 2 main console groups?

Sounds more like he is trying to compare the entire steam catalogue against the entire console catalogue.

It's not his fault that the large majority of steam players are solely playing those three titles.

- - - Updated - - -

I'd love to look at data from the big 3 (since Nintendo is off doing their own thing as per usual) in terms of sales etcl, would be fantastically interesting.

Completely agree, wish there was more transparency.

[Edge-]

Interesting to see some more numbers on this, although obviously active accounts is a misnomer since steam accounts are free and the others are tied to systems/paid accounts respectively.

You need a PC and Steam, just as with any PSN/XBL account all you need is the respective console. Both PSN and XBL are functional without subscriptions, though on current gen systems the do have limited functionality.

It's not a direct 1:1 comparison, but I'd hardly call it a misnomer.

Completely agree, wish there was more transparency.

Yeah, I get why there's not, but damn if I wouldn't basically cease to exist for a few weeks while sitting in my room pouring over the data. Got a buddy that started working at Sony recently and he's got access to some of their data (though wants more) and he's been having a field day going over it. I'm super jelly.

[Kanadei]

You need a PC and Steam, just as with any PSN/XBL account all you need is the respective console. Both PSN and XBL are functional without subscriptions, though on current gen systems the do have limited functionality.

It's not a direct 1:1 comparison, but I'd hardly call it a misnomer.

Maybe I exaggerated. But I know that I personally have 3 Steam accounts but only one Xbox Live account.

Not sure how true that example is for most people, but generally when making an account is incentivized through something like smurfing for Dota 2 compared with virtually no reason to do the same thing on Xbox Live, I'm cynical as to how many of the accounts are legitimate.

Maybe that's clutching at straws but that's my instinct anyway.

[Edge-]

To be fair, I don't think you even need a Playstation/Xbox to sign up for accounts for either system. I just checked and it looked like I could get through the account creation process without needing to put in any information to confirm I owned either system.

[Tech614]

To be fair, I don't think you even need a Playstation/Xbox to sign up for accounts for either system. I just checked and it looked like I could get through the account creation process without needing to put in any information to confirm I owned either system.

There really is no PSN/XBL accounts. They are simply MS and Sony accounts you can use all across their networks. You just simply tie a system to them when you log in on one.

So yes, you don't need a console to make them.

[Kanadei]

To be fair, I don't think you even need a Playstation/Xbox to sign up for accounts for either system. I just checked and it looked like I could get through the account creation process without needing to put in any information to confirm I owned either system.

I think my point was less that you literally need to own the system and more that people generally make an account only if they own the system and generally only make one account, as opposed to Steam where there are plenty of reasons to make multiple accounts. Fair correction nonetheless.

I guess the whole premise of the discussion in question is that active accounts means fairly little, unique IPs are a bit better.

[Tech614]

I think my point was less that you literally need to own the system and more that people generally make an account only if they own the system and generally only make one account, as opposed to Steam where there are plenty of reasons to make multiple accounts. Fair correction nonetheless.

I guess the whole premise of the discussion in question is that active accounts means fairly little, unique IPs are a bit better.

It's a good point because my family for instance used 3 different PSN accounts on a single PS3.

So saying Steam has 125 million unique users and the PS3 never sold 125 million consoles isn't a good comparison in any way.

[Deleted]

It's a good point because my family for instance used 3 different PSN accounts on a single PS3.

So saying Steam has 125 million unique users and the PS3 never sold 125 million consoles isn't a good comparison in any way.

I doubt majority of families are so financially stupid so that makes a marginal difference.

Infracted

[Tech614]

I doubt majority of families are so financially stupid so that makes a marginal difference.

My family is smart enough to realize PSN accounts are free, so it appears we are all mentally above you.

Infracted