LogInValve has released Steam Annual Summary: 2023, a breakdown of the platform's past year in terms of new features and performance.
Image credit: Steam
Valve has released its Steam Annual Summary, a retrospective blog post exploring last year's updates, features, sales performance, and many more. It's noted that 2023 was a big year for Valve as their very first game, Half-Life, celebrated its 25th birthday, and the Steam platform itself hit the 20-year mark.
The company revealed that 2023 was the first year in Steam's history where over 500 games earned more than $3 million in gross revenue. For comparison, that's more than double the number of games hitting the same threshold in 2018.
In terms of performance, Steam surpassed more than 33 million concurrent users for the first time.
The report also gives insight into Steam's famous seasonal sale events, calling it a "healthy growth". For example, during the 2023 Autumn Sale, games that earned over $1 million in revenue increased by 21% compared to 2022.
Image credit: Steam
Another curious fact is that physical cards are still the most popular method of gifting on Steam. During the 2023 Steam Winter Sale, players redeemed more than $80 million in physical wallet cards.
The report highlights that last year was also the year of top engagement with the Playtest feature, with 11.8 million players taking part in a Playtest on Steam during 2023 — a 41% increase compared to 2022.
Valve says that the diversity of games and genres finding success on the platform is growing: "Every month we publicly track the top 20 new releases by revenue, and the top five most-played new release free-to-play titles. In 2023, more than a quarter of those new releases were from studios releasing a game on Steam for the very first time, and those new studios hailed from more than two dozen different countries. In 2023's monthly lists, massive IPs like Diablo and Harry Potter sit alongside indie titles like (the) Gnorp Apologue and Slay the Princess."
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