By Sagar V. Mankar Valve Corporation’s Steam platform had a standout 2023, setting new records for concurrent users, gross revenue, and game launches.
As outlined in Steam’s recent blog post reflecting on the past year, Steam cemented itself as the premier PC gaming marketplace.
How Many Users Did Steam Reach in 2023?
In a recent blog post reflecting on 2023, Steam announced that it hit a new peak concurrent user count of over 33 million in 2023.
This tops the previous record of 31 million concurrent users set earlier in 2022.
Not only that, but Steam saw even higher concurrent user numbers in January 2024, peaking at 33.67 million.
Which Games Found Financial Success on Steam in 2023?
The number of games grossing over $3 million on Steam more than doubled compared to five years ago.
In 2023, 500+ games surpassed $3 million in gross revenue, up from just over 200 such games in 2018.
Additionally, over 25% of the top 20 games by revenue were from first-time Steam developers.
This showcases Steam’s ability to drive success for new studios.
Major sales events also posted strong numbers.
The holiday shopping season posted huge gains, with 21%+ games surpassing $1 million in sales during the Autumn sale events (Black Friday and Cyber Monday).
Between December 20-31 alone, Steam users redeemed more than $80 million worth of Steam gift cards.
What New Features Introduce in 2023?
On top of the record-setting business metrics, 2023 saw Steam push its platform forward with several key feature updates.
These included:
- New homepage layout and Big Picture mode
- Shopping cart updates like gifting capabilities
- Enhanced UTM tracking and traffic data
- Better trailer organization and DLC browsing
- Daily deal self-scheduling for developers
- Support for Indonesian language
These updates aimed to improve store navigation for players while providing developers more promotional options and traffic insights.
Most notably, the improved Playtest feature enabled over 11.8 million players to try early versions of games last year – a 41% increase over 2022.
This has become an invaluable way for devs to gather player feedback, especially around in-development multiplayer titles.
The Key Takeaways From Steam’s Standout 2023
With expansive growth in users, games getting to profitability, and continuing improvements to the platform itself, 2023 proved to be a landmark year for Steam by many metrics.
Steam demonstrates how a platform can evolve to meet the needs of both players looking for great game experiences and developers working to sustain successful businesses.
And with new concurrent user records already being set in early 2024, Steam still shows promising signs of momentum going forward.