Stardock: Steam Has 70% Of PC Download Market

Just about everybody involved with digital distribution is coy when it comes to sales numbers. Nobody wants to give the game away. But that doesn't stop some - like publishers/online retailers Stardock - from trying to guess!

Stardock boss Brad Wardell says "Our estimation is that Steam - as the current market leader - enjoys approximately 70 percent of the overall digital distribution market with Impulse at 10 percent and all others combined at 20 percent in terms of actual dollars generated per month".

While we have our doubts that Stardock's Impulse service is at #2 (surely Direct2Drive is bigger?), Steam's 70% figure is - if it checks out - both interesting and frightening at the same time. That's about the same level of market domination Apple enjoys in the music player scene.

Quick: name another portable music device that's not an iPod. Off the top of your head. Now tell me how many people you know own an iPod compared to a portable music device that's not an iPod.

http://kotaku.com/5409036/stardock-steam-has-70-of-pc-download-market

So it's definitely true that Steam is making billions yearly. Charttrack must be right when they said that Steam would make over $1 billion in North-America in 2009 alone. WOW!

well, go valve. They deserve it more making such a well done service.

I wonder if GoG, Impulse, D2D and Gamersgate make up the rest? Surely the EA store and EB games online store wouldn't account for much..

Valve is the savior of PC gaming!

I'm a little disapointed with the steam service. I've got problems with a game I bought, Cities XL, that would be solved if it were disc based. I'm yet to play it and yes I've sent e-mail and no good solution was suggested. But is the only way I can play certain games.

I think somewhere in the same interview the Stardock guy said digital sales represented around 30% of PC sales...

Interesting. So 21% of all PC game sales go through Valve if those numbers are correct.

That's scary and awesome at the same time.

Based on Shio's estimation of Cod4 selling 8-9 millions units on Steam we can now affirm that Cod4 sold 45 millions units on the PC !

Who knew !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steam's the only PC digital service I use, works fine for me - and keeps feeding me great Source based games too.

Valve has a monopoly on PC game downloads then? They must be swimming in cash!

I think Steam is a great service. I have been very happy with it. Congrats to them.