By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Conina on 25 July 2015
Edit Thread
JNK said:
cpg716 said:

Steam as of March has 125 million ACTIVE users..  and has been adding about 25-30 million users every 6 months.. in the past year..  Likely will be at 175 million ACTIVE users by end of 2015..   again a growth rate FAR large then console.  TOTAL  PS4/X1 users will be at MOST 50 million by end of 2015..  And STEAM is NOT every single gamer.. as there are SEVERAL ways to purhcase games on a PC.     GoG/Origin/Steam/etc.. Estimates for total PC gamers is anywhere from 300-700 million.    Which at the top end.. would be larger then 6th, 7th, and 8th generation console gaming COMBINED.. 

Steams user count is also growing because of people who make multiaccounts for whatever reasons. Almost every pc user i do know have more then 1 steam account.

Let me first say: I don't think that consoles are holding back PC games and I don't think they have in the past. AAA games have to reach a wide audience to make enough money to cover the production costs and make a nice profit on top... they can't do that by limiting their audience to 10% of the PC gamers with fast rigs. So with or without consoles... there are always compromises in graphics/performance to reach more buyers. I'm quite happy with the current situation: a coexistence of 7th gen consoles, 8th gen consoles, entry-level PCs, decent gaming PCs and high-end PCs.

If some PC-versions of multiplatform games don't show the performance they should theoretically have or are buggy as hell... don't blame the consoles but blame the developers/publishers and their QA instead who think they can release unfinished games!

Now for the downplaying of the number of Steam accounts: do you really think that a considerable amount of PC gamers has several Steam accounts and keeps them all active? The Steam numbers don't include accounts which have been used for a while, so even if you have some Steam games which aren't bound to your main account but to secondary accounts... if you don't play them regulary, they don't get counted. Most people are way too lazy to switch between several Steam accounts... they want all their games in one account (game collection not split up, no hassle with friend lists while on a secondary account...). They don't buy used games already connected to another Steam accounts, they want unused keys to connect these games with their own account. Just look up, how many Steam accounts are traded on eBay... it's an insignificant minority.

JNK said:

 Steam is a popular gaming plattform scince ~2010 (or even earilier). So your 25mio/6month cant be correct.

What you don't (want to?) get: it haven't been always 25mio/6month, the growth rate of Steam accounts is "gaining steam"!

  • 01/2012= 40 million active Steam accounts
  • 09/2012= 50 million active Steam accounts (~1.25 million per month since 01/2012)
  • 10/2013 = 65 million active Steam accounts (~1.15 million per month since 09/2012)
  • 01/2014 = 75 million active Steam accounts (~3.33 million per month since 10/2013)
  • 09/2014 = 100 million active Steam accounts (~3.13 million per month since 01/2014)
  • 02/2015 = 125 million active Steam accounts (~5 million per month since 09/2014)

If the growth in the last 5 month has stayed at 5 million per month on average, the announcement of 150 million active Steam accounts could follow soon, perhaps at GamesCom.