Steam hits new user record for 2024 and a record for games released last year

Yay, new record for released asset flips!

This is great to see! (And Super Bomberman R 2 was a part of that record, too. )

As much as folks harp on with that "PC Master Race" joke, PC-gaming actually has the smallest install-base of the video games market (followed by consoles, and then utterly eclipsed by mobile telephones/tablets), so seeing growth continue and records being smashed is always good news.

I know I've been playing more since the Steam Deck released - have you?

I got mine in September, and it's already become my most-gamed-on PC ever, far eclipsing the previous record-holder, which was my first laptop. That one was a Toshiba Satellite 4000 CDS, which I played a hell of a lot of stuff on and got my start in emulation with, in spite of it having a DSTN display - I'm probably the only one here who was willing to put up with stuff like that, haha! The Steam Deck offers a WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better experience!

Also, to add to that, I completed two games on my Deck just this morning (one that I played over the weekend, and a short one that I started on a whim since I had some more free time and then finished in one sitting). It's always right there with me, because it's THE handheld that I always wanted - complete with some flexible features that I never knew I wanted until I tried them out (twin trackpads and customisable back-buttons for the win!).

I used to think it was an issue, because there's an increasing number of (for lack of a better word) — junk. However, the low barrier to entry, and lack of direct curation by Valve, allows some truly unique stuff to appear and at times do really well. Valve having a more hands-off approach is probably better in the long run, as long as there's good tools for users to discover games they might be interested in, which Valve are gradually improving over time.

How do you feel about so many games releasing each year?

I prefer Valve's approach to the pricier walled-garden one of the consoles - back when I was a Switch owner, indie games would turn up years later than on Steam and cost way more. Leaving that behind really let me step out of my comfort-zone and try a lot more new (and new-to-me) things, and that's only increased in the handful of months since I got my Steam Deck.


Last edited by Pengling on 8 January 2024 at 12:43 pm UTC

Yay, new record for released asset flips!

Interestingly, Steam does appear to track this, and it's exposed on SteamDB's year graphs.

All the community trinkets get unlocked for a game "as games reach certain player and sales metrics that give confidence that a reasonable number of customers that are engaged with the game" according to Valve. According to SteamDB, of the 2023 games 3,270 games passed that milestone and 11,258 didn't.

Yay, new record for released asset flips!

Interestingly, Steam does appear to track this, and it's exposed on SteamDB's year graphs.

All the community trinkets get unlocked for a game "as games reach certain player and sales metrics that give confidence that a reasonable number of customers that are engaged with the game" according to Valve. According to SteamDB, of the 2023 games 3,270 games passed that milestone and 11,258 didn't.

That is interesting--although I think to be fair we should note that many games that don't sell could be perfectly sincere, even good, games that just didn't happen to find their audience.

That is interesting--although I think to be fair we should note that many games that don't sell could be perfectly sincere, even good, games that just didn't happen to find their audience.

That is true. And elsewhere in Valve's document they say that the limited community stuff doesn't affect sales for genuine games - it just scuppers those games that only exist for card/emoji/whatever farming.

I used to think it was an issue, because there's an increasing number of (for lack of a better word) — junk. However, the low barrier to entry, and lack of direct curation by Valve, allows some truly unique stuff to appear and at times do really well.

I don't remember the name of the book right now, but I read one a few years ago that touched on something like this. Basically, if you want to make great things, make lots of things. They will come out on a spectrum of bad-to-goodness depending on your skill and a bit of luck, but the important point is not to get caught up in either the failures or the major successes, just keep producing more of whatever it is you're making. That doesn't mean "churn out shovelware" – this is advice for people sincerely trying their best to make things of quality (whatever they may be) – just don't let yourself become perfectionist and take too long on any one thing. The more you make, the more experience you accrue, and the more natural 20s you'll roll (statistically speaking).

Now, I'm aware the analogy is not perfect, as the book was discussing individual creators, rather than an aggregate of game development studios, but I think there's a nugget of wisdom to be found. Yes, the ratio of junk-to-gems is quite high. But it's hard to say how many of today's hits, or even just modestly successful games that each of us has enjoyed, would have been published on Steam (or at all) under a more restrictive model. I think it comes down to a discoverability question: are people finding the games they'd like and enjoy? I have no strong opinions on how well Steam does this – it could probably be better – but isn't the perpetual cry of the PC gamer that our backlogs are too big, and ever-growing? As long as I've got more games than time to play them, who cares if there are a hundred shoddy asset-flips in the store for each game in my library I genuinely enjoy?