Steam is the most important online game distribution platform that exists today, and it is also one of the most highly regarded and most popular among users. That this platform has millions of concurrent users gives us an idea of ​​its weight in the sector, but its development during 2022 was truly impressive.

Valve has shared some interesting data about this development, and one of the most surprising is undoubtedly the increase in the total amount of data downloaded by users in 2022. As we can see in the attached graph, Steam experienced a major peak between 2019 and 2021, and this was even more pronounced in 2022, when this platform registered a total 44.7 exabytes of data downloaded from Steam users.

44.7 exabytes is a figure that does not amaze at first glance, in fact it may seem a little to us if we do not realize what an exabyte is equal to, so we will make the conversion for you so that it will certainly not leave you indifferent: this number is equal to almost 47 million terabytes. Impressive, right? Well, let’s move on to another no less interesting fact, this number is so huge that it would equal 5.5 GB of downloads for each of the nearly 8,000 million inhabitants of planet Earth.

Compared to 2021, we have a 36% increase in the total amount of data downloaded. If we focus on the number of users, we see that at the end of October 2022 Steam crossed the mark of 30 million users connected simultaneously and at the beginning of January 2023 the 33 million current user mark has been crossed.

Steam is a very crowded platform, but it is also very profitable, as evidenced by another important piece of information that Valve shared, which contrasts greatly with other platforms such as the Epic Games Store, where most of its users barely spend money and only they turn to it for free games. According to Valve, they recorded an average of 2022 for the entire year 83,000 new buyers a day, every day.

Putting all of this into context, it’s easy to see why Valve has left video game development so far behind and focused on in the promotion of Steam and in the development of products that contribute to the sale of this type of content. In that sense, Steam Deck was his biggest success to date.