Key Highlights:
- Steam reaches a new record high of 41 million active players, making it the most dominant PC storefront in existence.
- The death of Steam could create a vacuum in the PC gaming space.
- This is not likely to end well, and could cause issues for the platform.
Steam had rather humble beginnings, starting as a storefront for Valve-backed titles back in September 2003. Since then, Steam has grown massively to become a juggernaut in the PC gaming space, and perhaps the de facto place to buy games from on the platform.
Now, as per recent player charts, Steam is set to reach a new record high, but things could take a turn for the worse if co-founder Gabe Newell loses control of the platform, or if Steam suddenly loses relevance.
Steam Reaches a Major All-Time Peak of Over 41 Million Concurrent Players
The beloved PC gaming platform, Steam has managed to shatter records and set new ground. The platform has a concurrent active player base of around 24 million players, with an all-time peak of around 41,666,455 players in the past 24 hours – as per SteamDB charts.
This is a massive number, and perhaps the highest Steam has ever seen, making it a monumental achievement for both the platform and PC gaming as a whole.
There’s a lot that can be attributed to the success of Steam as a platform, but the fact that the storefront is over 22 years old as of the time of writing this article most certainly helped.
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Steam has had a lot of time to mature and gain the trust and attention of players and developers, all of whom seem to head back to Steam after a series of misadventures (which involve running their own, arguably worse platforms).
Steam’s policies and relatively rich feature sets have also helped shape it into the most dominant PC platform to date, and this isn’t likely to change any time soon.
However, this also begs the question, what will happen to the PC gaming industry once Steam ceases to exist and/or loses its current direction? The answer is not going to be one you like.
Gaben (And Steam) Are Practically Holding the PC Gaming Space Together
It’s no secret at this point that Steam is basically holding back the floodgates to chaos in the PC gaming space. The space is practically defined by Steam, with almost all major titles being released on the platform – save for a few that remain trapped in a weird exclusivity hell.
We should thank our lucky stars that Steam is, for the most part, a rather decent platform that seems mostly devoid of malpractices. Without the likes of Steam, PC gaming would likely turn into a hellscape of the wild west, with barely any regulation and standards in place.
Steam is also one of the few platforms that offers the most user-friendly features, and is backed by a corporation that doesn’t seem to be entirely lost in the face of corporate greed. Gabe Newell and his team can be attributed to most of their success, even if Gabe himself isn’t all that involved with the platform at present.
It will be a sad day when we inevitably lose Gaben and the core team at Valve, given how they are practically the last bastions safeguarding the PC master race from the throngs of mediocrity.
If it ever happens, Steam’s exit from the market will most certainly create a vacuum, which is going to have some very prominent aftereffects on the industry as a whole.
