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Steam - 2021 Year in Review

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,091
China
The annual review post by Valve is online:

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Steamworks Development :: Steam - 2021 Year in Review

A look back at 2021's biggest updates, events, and new features.
steamcommunity.com steamcommunity.com

Interesting bits:

The platform also saw amazing growth in digital gift cards. This feature was first introduced back in 2017, but usage shot up this year so we wanted to share an update. Steam Digital Gift Cards are a useful way for customers to gift Steam wallet credit to friends and family regardless of currency or country. None of the transaction costs are passed on to purchasers or game publishers, and the end user can seamlessly use their Steam Wallet funds for every single game, DLC or microtransaction across the platform with zero friction. More than 2.6 million digital gift cards were sent in 2021, and the dollar value of those gift cards increased 43% compared to 2020.
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2021's Summer Sale was the biggest event in Steam's history, with revenue for game developers growing 13% over Summer Sale 2020.
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They even acknowledge Sony and MS:

It's also worth pointing out that 2021 saw the addition of some beloved formerly-console-exclusive games from our friends at Sony and Microsoft. There are no bad years to be a PC gamer, but 2021 was an especially good one. From Days Gone to Forza Horizon 5, players on PC got to enjoy an incredible lineup from some of the best first-party console studios on the planet.
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For some fun in this thread:

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Delusibeta

Delusibeta

Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,648
a00235ec8a57122f9b2ac32d63ada8346263a148.png

Steam platform growth
2021 was successful even in comparison to 2020's unprecedented growth. Players spent almost 38 billion hours on Steam in 2021 - a 21% increase over 2020. (That's a whopping 4.3 million years of playtime.)

Player spending on games rose 27% compared to 2020, growing even more than playtime did. That growth wasn't just due to existing players, either - Steam saw 2.6M first-time purchasers each month of 2021, roughly the same rate of new purchaser growth we saw in 2020 as the global pandemic unfolded.
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(For reference, Epic recorded a 20% increase in overall EGS revenue in 2021).
 
InspectorJones

InspectorJones

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,621
Nothing stops the Steam train from dominating. Wonder if we'll get interesting Deck information in next year's review.
 
RedHeat

RedHeat

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,690
I like using gift cards because it prevents steam from potentially locking my account due to some fucky chargeback
 
Milennia

Milennia

Prophet of Truth - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,254
A lot of those bytes is me downloading and uninstalling cyberpunk over and over again
 

Decado

Member
Dec 7, 2017
1,393
Where is the next iteration of the steam controller? Not sure how long the one I have will last...
 
Delusibeta

Delusibeta

Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,648
Bonus stat from ZhugeEX:

I'll admit, I did see a big uptick in the number of games that were obviously developed by Chinese teams, but there were also a bunch that were less obvious (such as Dyson Sphere Program and Gunfire Reborn).
 
JLP101

JLP101

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,745
Could you imagine how much bigger Steam would be if EPIC wasn't buying exclusives? Would it even make a difference?
 
Fadewise

Fadewise

Member
Nov 5, 2017
3,210
And yet we still see constant discussions about "the big three", all of which Steam handily eclipses in terms of MAU and CCU.
 
dex3108

dex3108

Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,593
Solid numbers and growth, especially if we compare it with "pandemic" year growth.
 
Alexandros

Alexandros

Member
Oct 26, 2017
17,811
JLP101 said:
Could you imagine how much bigger Steam would be if EPIC wasn't buying exclusives? Would it even make a difference?
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Probably not a big one. Epic's exclusives have been reduced by a lot compared to EGS' first couple of years in the market and it seems that most people wait out the exclusivity period and then buy them on Steam. I don't think Valve ends up losing much revenue, it just gets displaced 12 months later.
 
eonden

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,084
Paraside said:
How exactly does the dollar value of a gift card increase when it has a set value in dollars?
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More people sending gift cards (and higher value gift cards). What they are saying is that the amount of money send through digital gift cards increased by 43%.
They set the value in dollars so that it is easier to compare as Valve supports many currencies that fluctuate. So standarizing around USD (Valve "major" currency as they are located in the USA) makes sense.
 

Deleted member 2595

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,475
eonden said:
More people sending gift cards (and higher value gift cards). What they are saying is that the amount of money send through digital gift cards increased by 43%.
They set the value in dollars so that it is easier to compare as Valve supports many currencies that fluctuate. So standarizing around USD (Valve "major" currency as they are located in the USA) makes sense.
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Ah yes, so more like the average value send by gift cards went up. Say an average of $10 in 2019 became an average of $25 in 2021. I follow.
 
eonden

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,084
Paraside said:
Ah yes, so more like the average value send by gift cards went up. Say an average of $10 in 2019 became an average of $25 in 2021. I follow.
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No, more like a combination of more people sending and the average (maybe) being higher.
So for instance instead of 10 people sending 10$ each, you get 14 people sending 10.2$ each
 
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