Steam closed 2021 with 132 million active players per month and exceeding the global figures of the previous year

Steam, Valve’s PC video game platform, has presented the data recorded in 2021, which shows a great increase with respect to the previous year, since the 132 million players assets.

The company has indicated in a statement that the “continued success” of your service It is due to two factors: the availability of their games and the quality of the experience that players find in them.

Likewise, it has informed that, at the moment, it works around two objectives. On the one hand, seeks to make sure that PC games can be launched “quickly and easily” on Steam, minimizing friction and maximizing developer control.

On the other hand, from Steam they work to provide titles with a wide and constantly improving ecosystem of tools and features, to make “Steam the best place to collect games and play“, as can be read in this publication.

Thanks to this effort, the company has achieved an overall increase in its figures. For example, in 2021, gamers spent almost 38 billion hours on Steam – equivalent to 4.3 million years of game time – which is 21 percent more than in 2020.

Last year players also spent more money on the platform, that is, 27 percent more than in 2020. Additionally, there were more than 2.6 million new registered shoppers and growth in gift card purchases.

Steam Digital Gift Cards can be used regardless of currency or country where purchases are made. They have no transaction costs and players can use wallet funds on all games as well as downloadable content (DLC).

Also in 2021, the shipment of these cards grew, to exceed 2.6 million, and their value in dollars also grew, which increased by 43 percent compared to 2020.

Other figures that Valve has released have been the number of active daily players, which in 2021 was 69 million, and the 132 million active players per month.

Steam believes this growth is due to the addition of some games developed by Sony and Microsoft, previously exclusive to consoles, including Days Gone O Forza Horizon.

Likewise, he recalled that the open and accessible virtual reality (VR) ecosystem continues to thrive in the company. Due to those conditions, VR gamers grew 11 percent more in 2021 than in 2020, with 22 percent more unique gaming sessions.

Other aspects that the company has highlighted in the balance have been the latest update of Steamworks SDK v1.52, launched in September, or the start-up of Steam Playtest which allows any developer to set up and run beta builds for free from a Steam game’s store page.

In addition, he recalled that during the past year statistics on the use of the control command were added to the sales data pages and it was reinforced SteamPipe the system developers use to upload and distribute their builds.

Another of its achievements in 2021 was the implementation of improvements in the function Remote Play, with new features in local multiplayer via Valve’s networks for free to players or developers.

Seasonal sale events also achieved record numbers, generating more traffic with new customers. In the summer, for example, the income of game developers increased 13 percent compared to 2020, while in winter 2.3 million users bought a title on the platform for the first time.

Valve has also stressed that the introduction of UTM code analysis gave game publishers the ability to track the value of their off-platform advertising.

In this way, in 2021 more than 400 million visits to more than 44,000 titles via external links with UTM parameters.

Finally, he recalled that one of his great milestones has been the launch of his portable console, Steam Deck, which he plans to take to more territories and for which continues to distribute ‘software’ updates and ‘firmware’ to improve the user experience.

By Editor

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