Steam Records 120 Million Monthly Active Users As Gamers Use Lockdown Time

Lockdowns and the subsequent shift to stay-at-home had a profound impact on a variety of internet services in 2020.

Reuters

PC gaming service Steam now adds on to this list, registering a record 120 million monthly active users in the second half of the pandemic-hit 2020 year.

The meteoric rise in the number of active Steam users is evident when compared to the figures recorded from 2019. Steam had 95 million monthly active users in 2019. 2020 hence saw an additional 25 million plus players on the gaming platform. In addition, Steam also managed to record 24.8 million peak concurrent players.

Naturally, the gamers who logged onto Steam didn¡¯t just while away on the platform. Steam noted a sale of more games than ever before. Marking an increase of 21.4 percent over 2019, gamers who bought games on Steam also spent more time playing those games. Average playtimes increase by 50.7 percent as compared to 2019.

Steam 2020 Year in review

Steam released the information in a recent blog post titled "Year In Review". The blog highlights a boost in VR revenue too, with a 71 percent increase year-over-year. Steam says that Half-Life: Alyx brought in the bulk of that increase (39 percent). Sales from other VR games boosted revenue by the remaining 32 percent.

Interestingly, the post also mentioned an increased use of controllers for PC gamers in 2020. As per Steam data, 46.6 million users used a gamepad as their choice of input during the entire year. This number was restricted to 31.8 million in 2019.

Such a boost in active users has been noted across categories of Internet services. Gaming, however, has been one of the fastest growing fields in this regard. It is good to see PC gaming rising simultaneously with console based gaming.