While 2022 is already well underway, gamers are still learning new information about how well video game companies performed in 2021. For example, Steam, the video game digital distribution service from Valve, recently released details about its platform growth throughout 2021, and the results were what many probably expected: excellent.
This news about platform growth came as part of the company's year-end review for 2021. In the report, a wide range of statistics was given regarding the number of users on Steam over the past year. Among the data, the company reported that it had a total of 132 million monthly active players. On top of this, 69 million users were logging on each day. As a result of this high number of players, Steam saw an increase in spending by 27% compared to 2020. Furthermore, the total playtime on the platform reached close to 38 billion hours, which resulted in a growth of 21% from the previous year.
Beyond these impressive statistics, perhaps the most amazing piece of data was that Steam managed to add 31.2 million new users over 2021. Based on the report from the company, approximately 2.6 million “first-time purchasers” joined the platform every month, equalling the growth seen in 2020. It is worth pointing out that Steam often refers to new user accounts as “first-time purchasers.” This is because some players have multiple accounts on the platform.
While these statistics are noteworthy on their own, they are made even more impressive when considering the success of Steam in 2020. According to the company report, Steam had experienced “unprecedented growth” during that period, partly due to the impact of the pandemic. However, 2021 has managed to carry on that incredible upward trend.
In addition to pointing out these statistics, Valve gave a reason for the increase in new users. Based on the year-end review from the company, a significant factor driving the popularity of the platform was the amount of formerly console-exclusive games that had arrived on the platform in 2021. Some examples of titles that had made their way onto the digital storefront last year included popular Xbox and PlayStation properties such as God of War, Days Gone, and Forza Horizon 5.
While this platform growth is exciting for fans of Steam, it is not the only news regarding Valve. Recently, dataminers discovered new details about a potential Half-Life game called Citadel. These details reportedly came from code uncovered in the recently released Aperture Desk Job, a bite-sized game meant to show off the controls of the Steam Deck. It will be interesting to see if this leak turns out to be correct and whether even more details about the possible project are revealed in the coming days.