Steam 2024 Year in Review shows off a remarkable list of wins for Valve

In a staggering surprise to absolutely nobody, Valve has announced that Steam did quite well for itself in 2024, actually. The grand Steam Year in Review 2024 is now out and about, summarizing all the key updates, upgrades, and milestones for PC gaming's biggest platform. It's a doozy. Though I've got nothing against other PC gaming storefronts, like the Epic Games Store or GOG, there's something to be said about the sheer scope of support provided to Steam. Steam is, of course, more of an ecosystem for gaming than anything else, with all the fancy hardware and advanced features you can access using it. This means Valve's efforts need to be spread across numerous different avenues, but that doesn't appear to have caused much trouble at all. The highlight of 2024's Year in Review for Steam is the sheer number of entirely new users on the platform, almost 2 million in total. Picture by Destructoid Steam continues trucking on, reaching previously unprecedented milestones According to Valve, a grand total of 1.7 million entirely new users have joined Steam in 2024 alone. This number is remarkable especially because of Steam's age: simply not having an account on the platform is practically unthinkable if you do any amount of PC gaming. Steam is downright ubiquitous yet it still finds room to grow, which is the really impressive part. In a practical, financial sense, these users have been rather productive for Valve and Steam: "The 1.7 million customers who originated from a top 2023 release went on to enjoy more than 141 million hours of playtime in additional games, on top of any playtime from the game that brought them onboard. And they weren’t just playing games — they were buying new ones, too. That cohort of players has gone on to spend $20 million on in-game transactions across hundreds of other games — plus another $73 million on premium games and DLC across thousands more products," says the blog in question. Compared to Steam's statistics from 2014, the revenue attained from entirely new game releases has increased about tenfold: "In 2024, more than 500 new titles exceeded $250,000 in New Release revenue (up 27% from 2023)," says Valve, adding that "more than 200 new titles exceeded $1 million in New Release revenue (up 15% from 2023)." Valve has also highlighted the fact that 2024 has been the company's most successful and prolific year when it comes to themed game sales, too. We already have a list of the first six months' worth of themed sales jotted down, on that note, so check them out if you're intrigued. Let's not forget about Valve's darling piece of hardware, either: the Steam Deck. "All of [Valve's work on the Deck and SteamOS] is paying off in terms of games and playtime. Our Deck Compatibility program has about 17,000 "Playable" or "Verified” games (and remember- customers can still install and launch any of their Steam games, plus other game launchers and stores, as they see fit). Steam Deck generated an incredible 330 million hours of Steam playtime in 2024 alone — a 64% increase over 2023," says Valve. If you're interested in learning more about how Steam operates and what makes it such a successful business, I highly recommend reading through the full Year in Review blog. There's a wealth of information to be found in the document, and though much of it is just stats, it should help illustrate the point rather well. Let's see what 2025 might bring in this respect. The post Steam 2024 Year in Review shows off a remarkable list of wins for Valve appeared first on Destructoid.

Mar 14, 2025 - 16:16

Steam 2024 Year in Review shows off a remarkable list of wins for Valve

In a staggering surprise to absolutely nobody, Valve has announced that Steam did quite well for itself in 2024, actually. The grand Steam Year in Review 2024 is now out and about, summarizing all the key updates, upgrades, and milestones for PC gaming's biggest platform. It's a doozy.

Though I've got nothing against other PC gaming storefronts, like the Epic Games Store or GOG, there's something to be said about the sheer scope of support provided to Steam. Steam is, of course, more of an ecosystem for gaming than anything else, with all the fancy hardware and advanced features you can access using it. This means Valve's efforts need to be spread across numerous different avenues, but that doesn't appear to have caused much trouble at all. The highlight of 2024's Year in Review for Steam is the sheer number of entirely new users on the platform, almost 2 million in total.

Steam continues trucking on, reaching previously unprecedented milestones

According to Valve, a grand total of 1.7 million entirely new users have joined Steam in 2024 alone. This number is remarkable especially because of Steam's age: simply not having an account on the platform is practically unthinkable if you do any amount of PC gaming. Steam is downright ubiquitous yet it still finds room to grow, which is the really impressive part.

In a practical, financial sense, these users have been rather productive for Valve and Steam: "The 1.7 million customers who originated from a top 2023 release went on to enjoy more than 141 million hours of playtime in additional games, on top of any playtime from the game that brought them onboard. And they weren’t just playing games — they were buying new ones, too. That cohort of players has gone on to spend $20 million on in-game transactions across hundreds of other games — plus another $73 million on premium games and DLC across thousands more products," says the blog in question.

Compared to Steam's statistics from 2014, the revenue attained from entirely new game releases has increased about tenfold: "In 2024, more than 500 new titles exceeded $250,000 in New Release revenue (up 27% from 2023)," says Valve, adding that "more than 200 new titles exceeded $1 million in New Release revenue (up 15% from 2023)."

Valve has also highlighted the fact that 2024 has been the company's most successful and prolific year when it comes to themed game sales, too. We already have a list of the first six months' worth of themed sales jotted down, on that note, so check them out if you're intrigued.

Let's not forget about Valve's darling piece of hardware, either: the Steam Deck. "All of [Valve's work on the Deck and SteamOS] is paying off in terms of games and playtime. Our Deck Compatibility program has about 17,000 "Playable" or "Verified” games (and remember- customers can still install and launch any of their Steam games, plus other game launchers and stores, as they see fit). Steam Deck generated an incredible 330 million hours of Steam playtime in 2024 alone — a 64% increase over 2023," says Valve.

If you're interested in learning more about how Steam operates and what makes it such a successful business, I highly recommend reading through the full Year in Review blog. There's a wealth of information to be found in the document, and though much of it is just stats, it should help illustrate the point rather well. Let's see what 2025 might bring in this respect.

The post Steam 2024 Year in Review shows off a remarkable list of wins for Valve appeared first on Destructoid.