In an uncharacteristically open announcement, Valve has revealed that its digital distribution network, Steam, has grown almost three fold in the last year. This is an impressive feat, considering that Valve launched Steam in 2003.
According to Valve, there are now over 30 million Steam user accounts. Over six million of these accounts are accessing Steam every day.
Modern Warfare 2 was launched almost one year ago, and the PC version required that Steam be installed. This as well as other games that integrate Steamworks by default have helped ensure that Steam has become almost a necessity for PC gamers. Steam has also pushed hard with its famous sales over the past 12 months.
To cater for the drastically increased user load, Valve has had to upgrade server capacity, which now runs at 400Gps. Valve points out that this is fast enough to transfer the Oxford English Dictionary 92.6 times per second.
Valve president Gabe Newell had the following to say about Steam’s recent success:
“Steam is on track to record the biggest year in its six year history. The year has marked major development advances to the platform with the introduction of support for Mac titles, the Steam Wallet and in-game item buying support, and more. We believe the growth in accounts, sales, and player numbers is completely tied to this work and we plan to continue to develop the platform to offer more marketing, sales, and design tools for developers and publishers of games and digital entertainment.”
Steam now hosts over 1200 games, and Valve claims that sales are up over 200 percent year on year. This marks the sixth straight year that Steam sales have doubled or better.
A key driver behind the popularity of Steam is improving broadband infrastructure across the globe. Downloading games is even becoming viable for many South African gamers, with the recent introduction of affordably priced uncapped ADSL solutions. It was recently announced that digital PC game sales now exceed physical retails sales, although it will be a while before the South African market mirrors this trend.
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