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[nemiroff]

It's funny how the "but, my grandmother's PC!" argument is the exact same argument we saw when the number was 5 mill

Here's the thing. The ratio and nature of the CCU numbers is about the same as it always was. The line keeps pointing up and fast, that's what the news is about.

And btw, funnily enough, my elitist high end PC gamer desktop rig does not start Steam at Windows boot

 

[Sentenza]

Consoles have reported MAUs and units sold. I've never heard of them reporting "concurrent" users before. So we don't have apples to apples data to compare and that's why it shouldn't be.

You can bet your hairy ass that if they had a higher number than Steam for CCU to brag around you would have heard it directly from them at this point.

 

[Senua]

Poor people! Most of them have to deal with windows!..

If only they could buy Steam Machines!..

 

[BennyBlanco]

Consoles have reported MAUs and units sold. I've never heard of them reporting "concurrent" users before. So we don't have apples to apples data to compare and that's why it shouldn't be.

Valve last reported MAU numbers in 2021 as 132M.

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

A look back at 2021's biggest updates, events, and new features.

store.steampowered.com

Definitely way higher now as the CCUs have skyrocketed since then.

 

[ProtoByte]

MAUs and concurrent players is are statistics that have diminishing marginal utility.

 

[Parazels]

You can bet your hairy ass that if they had a higher number than Steam for CCU to brag around you would have heard it directly from them at this point.

I have a Steam account, but I've never ever bought or played games there! Nevertheless, pc-minorities will immediately include me in their extincting community, in order to inflate numbers!

These disgraceful manipulations, are, of course, impossible on consoles!

 

[Sentenza]

MAUs and concurrent players is are statistics that have diminishing marginal utility.

CCU (so people at a certain given moment are actually logged to a service and ready to use it) is arguably the most useful statistic you could ask for, as a developer/publisher willing to consider what your potential user base is.

 

[Topher]

Valve last reported MAU numbers in 2021 as 132M.

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

A look back at 2021's biggest updates, events, and new features.

store.steampowered.com

Definitely way higher now as the CCUs have skyrocketed since then.

Yep. Sony reported 129 MAUs the past quarter so still far behind whatever Steam's current MAUs are.

 

[Mortisfacio]

I don't think we ever got concurrent numbers from Sony but last we heard they have 118M MAU between ps4 and ps5. Good numbers.

Of course, we also have to account for pranksters watching Netflix and the bot accounts for farming Fifa cards per @rofif request.

End of 2024 Sony claimed 129 MAU. Steam in January was 132 million.

For those that care about those actively playing games, Steam is the only platform actually advertising data to make estimates. Console unit sales are neat and all, but what's the concurrent? Who all is playing games? Half my Xbox/PlayStation online friends list is watching movies and shows on any given day I log in. We can see Steam in the 12-13 million concurrent actually playing games, because Steam actually provides the data to determine that.

Regardless, I find these threads amusing because there's always the same group of people running into these to run damage control and downplay figures.

edit: Misinterpretation due to the article/date via a google search. For example:

132 MAU in a Jan 30, 2025 result (and many others along this January 2025 timeframe), but clicking the link takes you to 2021 data.

 

[Sentenza]

I have a Steam account, but I've never ever bought or played games there! Nevertheless, pc-minorities will immediately include me in their extincting community, in order to inflate numbers!

These disgraceful manipulations, are, of course, impossible on consoles!

Do you log on Steam daily?

If you do, it's your fault and you have your stupidity to blame for being "forcefully included" on a service you are factually using.
If you don't, you are full of shit.

P.S. Also, in case this post wasn't meant to be sarcastic: I'm probably still counted on the PSN user base despise the fact that my last Playstation is a PS4 Pro that died during a thunderstorm more than a year ago.

 

[Parazels]

Do you log on Steam daily?

If you do, it's your fault and you have your stupidity to blame for being "forcefully included" on a service you are factually using.
If you don't, you are full of shit.

Give me a Steam Machine, this is your only possibility to meet me in some game (and lose)!

 

[Topher]

You can bet your hairy ass that if they had a higher number than Steam for CCU to brag around you would have heard it directly from them at this point.

Microsoft probably would as, like Steam, Xbox is an app running in Windows as well as a console. Different situation for Nintendo and Sony, obviously. The console, on the average, is not running as much as a PC. So those numbers will probably never close to Steam's CCU. In-game stats would be more comparable there.

 

[Topher]

End of 2024 Sony claimed 129 MAU. Steam in January was 132 million.

132 million was Steam's MAUs back in 2021. I don't think that number has been updated since.

Steam Usage and Catalog Stats for 2025

Interesting Steam user stats. Includes data on users, games and more.

backlinko.com

 

[Sentenza]

132 million was Steam's MAUs back in 2021.

For context Steam CCU in 2021 was 27 millions vs the current 40.

 

[Topher]

For context Steam CCU in 2021 was 27 millions vs the current 40.

That's impressive growth

 

[Mortisfacio]

132 million was Steam's MAUs back in 2021. I don't think that number has been updated since.

Gotcha. Misinterpretation of data in the way google search presented the info. 132 MAU on articles published January of 2025.

 

[Parazels]

I've been on the platform for 20 years!

What a waste of time!

 

[BennyBlanco]

End of 2024 Sony claimed 129 MAU. Steam in January was 132 million.

That Steam number is from 2021. They stopped including it in their yearly wrapup after that. Who knows what it is now, considering how the CCU number has exploded since then.

 

[Mayar]

Give me a Steam Machine, this is your only possibility to meet me in some game (and lose)!

Are you even sure that this is a good idea in your case?

 

[Topher]

Gotcha. Misinterpretation of data in the way google search presented the info. 132 MAU on articles published January of 2025.

I caught myself earlier as I was about to post the same thing you did.

 

[Sentenza]

That's impressive growth

That would be the second news tied to this new record, if the thread wasn't immediately derailed by the usual suspects.

This is not just the new highest number of CCU but also the fastest year-on-year growth the platform ever had so far.

 

[Topher]

That Steam number is from 2021. They stopped including it in their yearly wrapup after that. Who knows what it is now, considering how the CCU number has exploded since then.

If MAUs kept the same pace then today Steam MAUs would be close to 200 million, I believe.

 

[MarV0]

Consoles have reported MAUs and units sold. I've never heard of them reporting "concurrent" users before. So we don't have apples to apples data to compare and that's why it shouldn't be.

Microsoft used to report Xbox live concurrent users record a long time ago during the Halo and Gears golden age. It was around the 2m mark.

 

[Edder1]

Lol at all the insecure console fanboys flooding this thread with their insecurities. I guess playing games at 30fps for too long ends up making you a little insecure bitch, doesn't it?

 

[zedinen]

Microsoft estimated Valve's revenue in 2021 at $6.5bn


Big 3's revenues throughout calendar 2024

• Sony/PlayStation - $30.8 billion
• Microsoft/Xbox - $22.7 billion
• Nintendo - $8 billion


EA Trailing 12 Months Q3 FY25 Net Bookings (Console $4.60bn, PC $1.46bn, Mobile $1.15bn )

T2 Nine Months Ended December 31, 2024 Net Bookings (Mobile $2.14bn, Console $1.56bn, PC and Other $358.9m)

Ubisoft 9 Months 2024-25 Net Bookings (Consoles 55%, PC 25%, Mobile 9%, Others 11%)

 

[YeulEmeralda]

It really did need to be included in my opinion especially after reading the first few comments.

40m concurrent PC gamers is such an enormous number that the overwhelming majority of people cannot comprehend it.

When consoles used to report concurrent users they were around the 2m mark

I remember when PC gaming was almost dead. It really is remarkable.

 

[Gorgon]

Microsoft estimated Valve's revenue in 2021 at $6.5bn


Big 3's revenues throughout calendar 2024

• Sony/PlayStation - $30.8 billion
• Microsoft/Xbox - $22.7 billion
• Nintendo - $8 billion


EA Trailing 12 Months Q3 FY25 Net Bookings (Console $4.60bn, PC $1.46bn, Mobile $1.15bn )

T2 Nine Months Ended December 31, 2024 Net Bookings (Mobile $2.14bn, Console $1.56bn, PC and Other $358.9m)

Ubisoft 9 Months 2024-25 Net Bookings (Consoles 55%, PC 25%, Mobile 9%, Others 11%)

Doesn't this suggest that multiplats sell substantially more on consoles (even if not combined) than on PC?

 

[Mortisfacio]

I remember when PC gaming was almost dead. It really is remarkable.

The start of the 360/PS3 era was rough for PC gaming. Had some gems like Counter Strike, Warcraft/Starcraft at their highs, but the RTS genre was dying, consoles were aggressively priced and great value compared to high end PC hardware.

Indie and AA devs, twitch scene, modding community and more affordable hardware has really helped the PC community the last 15 years grow in popularity. It's really neat to see games get new life due to the modding scene, indie devs get noticed because of Twitch or elsewhere. The crypto and AI market driving up GPU prices in recent years has sucked, though.

 

[Itchy Tickles]

Some insecure people in this thread, holy hell. It's like that topic about PS2 selling more than any other console and the Nintendo Warriors came out saying "well actually, the Switch will beat this easily so meh" and now it's the PlayStation Clan coming in and going "40m? Cute, "we" sold 70 million consoles"

If you want to play that card, how many PCs have been sold, ever? "It's not the same" , I know, I'm just being pointless like you.

Congratulations to Steam, may all your knives be sharp forever.

 

[kevboard]

Best gaming store/platform in the planet. Especially with the refund policy if under 2 hours or two weeks

everyone except Sony has that refund policy afaik... Sony does have it too, at least in the EU, where every online purchase has to offer a 14 day no-questions-asked refund by law.

 

[Shubh_C63]

2024 probably saw the biggest user jump in Steam as AVERAGE monthly player count jumped by 4M as compared to almost flat numbers from 2022-23.
Most definitely by Dec-25 average CCU will jump to another 4M ending at 31M monthly.

That...is insane numbers and we didn't even got a single tweet celebrating this on Steam's twitter account.

 

[ProtoByte]

CCU (so people at a certain given moment are actually logged to a service and ready to use it) is arguably the most useful statistic you could ask for, as a developer/publisher willing to consider what your potential user base is.

No, fucking SALES and REVENUE are you most useful statistic, to which you have direct access as a dev or a publisher.

This CCU hype assists no one but Valve and Steam fanboys.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Steam hit 30M ccu in Oct 2022. So in less than 2.5 years grew it +10M (33%). Wow.

 

[Deerock71]

I'm thinking Nintendo and Steam are my go-to jams, especially if Sony and Microsoft's best are on Steam.

 

[BennyBlanco]

No, fucking SALES and REVENUE are you most useful statistic, to which you have direct access as a dev or a publisher.

This CCU hype assists no one but Valve and Steam fanboys.

The CCU is worth talking about because it's growing at an incredible rate. Also worth talking about because it riles up Sony warriors.

See you in the 45M CCU thread.

 

[Wildebeest]

Still not banned in China.

 

[Durin]

It's cool to see the platform keep growing, despite the roadblocks in the last few years like Unreal stuttering + GPU prices, but I think the diversity of game offerings outside of just AAA helps grab more numbers.

Nintendo I think is going to perform well since we've hit diminished returns on graphics, and their new handheld will do PS4 gen fidelity. Sony is still trucking along, and Microsoft is more of a wild-card with how their services + large dev lineup pans out.

Growth in gaming is stagnating somewhat, yet most of the platforms still have large userbases.

 

[Sentenza]

No, fucking SALES and REVENUE are you most useful statistic, to which you have direct access as a dev or a publisher.

This CCU hype assists no one but Valve and Steam fanboys.

You have no clue of what you are talking about, but that's not surprising in the slightest.
"Sales" tell you about what your game sold. If you are lucky you can also get some external data from publishers willing to make the details public (and it's always in vague terms).
CCU on the other hand is a constantly-available, easily accessible direct measurement of how much active user base a given platform may have at any given time. How much is growing or shrinking over time, how active it is at different points in time, etc, etc.

The CCU is worth talking about because it's growing at an incredible rate.

It's also worth talking because on the basis of individual games it relates proportionally and directly to actual sales. Like the number of user reviews left.

 

[Bojji]

everyone except Sony has that refund policy afaik... Sony does have it too, at least in the EU, where every online purchase has to offer a 14 day no-questions-asked refund by law.

Doesn't it only apply if you haven't even started downloading the game? Once you do, it's over.

 

[Buggy Loop]

congr..

Oh another thread going that way uh?

 

[ArtHands]

Yep. Sony reported 129 MAUs the past quarter so still far behind whatever Steam's current MAUs are.

129 MAU including those who play on Vita, PS3 and Playstation PC

 

[Topher]

129 MAU including those who play on Vita, PS3 and Playstation PC

Correct

 

[Three]

everyone except Sony has that refund policy afaik... Sony does have it too, at least in the EU, where every online purchase has to offer a 14 day no-questions-asked refund by law.

Nintendo doesn't either but Sony often has 2+ hour full game trials for most the games which is basically like the 2 hour refund policy without the payment if you want to use it to get an idea of the game. I just make use of that for games I'm not sure about.

 

[DaciaJC]

No, fucking SALES and REVENUE are you most useful statistic, to which you have direct access as a dev or a publisher.

This CCU hype assists no one but Valve and Steam fanboys.

I'm pretty sure publishers like Sony would be keen to know what the current size of the active Steam userbase is, is it growing, how fast, which demographics are contributing most to that growth, etc.

No need to get so touchy over this sort of topic.

 

[kevboard]

Doesn't it only apply if you haven't even started downloading the game? Once you do, it's over.

Nintendo doesn't either but Sony often has 2+ hour full game trials for most the games which is basically like the 2 hour refund policy without the payment if you want to use it to get an idea of the game. I just make use of that for games I'm not sure about.

in the EU they are all required by law to offer a full refund for anything bought online within 14 days.
there has even been a case I think where someone refuned a house that he bought online like a decade ago... I think I remember seeing an article about it.

they can have some TOS stuff telling you there are limitations, but that doesn't hold up against EU laws.

there have been reports by some from a few years ago that their accounts got banned on PSN after they refuned something, which I guess would be a way for them to discourage refunds, but they have to refund no matter what.

 

[Bojji]

in the EU they are all required by law to offer a full refund for anything bought online within 14 days.
there has even been a case I think where someone refuned a house that he bought online like a decade ago... I think I remember seeing an article about it.

they can have some TOS stuff telling you there are limitations, but that doesn't hold up against EU laws.

there have been reports by some from a few years ago that their accounts got banned on PSN after they refuned something, which I guess would be a way for them to discourage refunds, but they have to refund no matter what.

You can't even try the game:

 

[bender]

That's impressive growth

That's what

said.

 

[awwr999999]

Lots and lots prankster uncles and people who don't buy games apparently have Steam running everywhere. 40 mil is fake news.
And yes, 40 mil concurrent is how many people have Steam running. In game is a different figure. I think 12.5mil was brought up as highest in game.

Simple explanation is that every Steam install on Windows defaults to "Run Steam when my computer starts" and killing Steam via the usual X button in the upper right only hides Steam in the background.
Steam's app is quasi-malware that's difficult to stop from starting automatically and equally difficult to stop once it's already been started.

 

[Jesb]

It'll be sad when it eventually goes to shit. Every major corp does eventually.

 

[amigastar]

It'll be sad when it eventually goes to shit. Every major corp does eventually.

I don't see Valve's Steam going down in the near future. It's a safe business for Valve. We can expect Steam to be around the next 20 years.