Key Takeaways
1. Steam’s user base has grown from 25 million to over 42 million concurrent users in five years.
2. Users downloaded 100 exabytes of games and updates in 2025, up from 80 exabytes in 2024.
3. On average, Steam users downloaded 274 petabytes of data daily in 2025.
4. Developers are benefiting from higher revenue shares, with the average reaching 76% for non-Valve games in 2025.
5. Valve continues to enhance tools and support for developers and publishers on the platform.
Valve has recently shared its Steam Year in Review for 2025, showcasing various enhancements made for developers and publishers, along with updates on forthcoming hardware. In addition to these updates, Valve provided some intriguing insights into the volume of data users downloaded from Steam over the past year.
Steady Growth of Steam
Valve noted that the platform has been steadily expanding. Approximately five years ago, Steam reached the milestone of 25 million concurrent users for the first time. Currently, that figure has risen to over 42 million. As more gamers join the platform each year, the total data downloaded has surged dramatically.
Massive Data Downloads
In 2024, Steam users downloaded around 80 exabytes of games and updates. This figure jumped to 100 exabytes in 2025. To give an idea of scale, 100 exabytes is equivalent to about 100 million terabytes of data, marking a significant volume of game downloads on the platform.
Valve also offered a detailed breakdown to illustrate the enormity of this statistic. On average, Steam users downloaded roughly 274 petabytes of game installs and updates daily throughout the year. This equates to approximately 11.42 petabytes per hour, or around 190,000 gigabytes of data downloaded every minute from Steam’s servers.
Developer Revenue Insights
Additionally, Valve observed that since implementing the 75% and 80% revenue share options in 2018, more developers have achieved these higher revenue levels. In 2025, the average revenue share distributed to developers for all non-Valve games hit 76%.
Steam Community
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