2009 was a banner year for Valve and their successful digital distribution platform Steam. To many, 2009 was a difficult one given the condition of the worldwide economy, among other reasons. Despite the general hardships, Steam found success in its multiple consumer and developer offerings.
The platform saw massive growth in active accounts surpassing 25 million users. This achievement marks a 25% increase over the previous year. The increase served to push Steam’s average monthly player minutes beyond an astonishing 13 billion in December.
Such a massive increase in users demands an equal increase in content and sales, and Steam certainly did not disappoint on that front either. Thousands of games are now available to be purchased digitally on Steam. Valve announced that during the calendar year of 2009, Steam sales saw a 205% increase over 2008. This marks the fifth consecutive year that Steam has enjoyed over 100% increase in sales. One needs not to look past this statistic to see that digital distribution is here to stay in a big way.
Valve also made mention of the growth that their distribution framework known as Steamworks saw in 2009. Citing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Empire: Total War, and Dawn of War II as AAA titles that utilize Steamworks, Valve explained that the framework is only now picking up steam and that they expect much more future growth and adoption.
In only six years time, Steam has grown from a general pain in the neck to the premiere example of digital distribution and centralized gaming community. Valve have put a lot of time and attention into perfecting Steam, and their efforts have clearly paid off. Many suggest that Steam is one of the greatest reasons to be a PC gamer in this modern age. With record breaking numbers like this in a year as difficult as 2009, it serves to solidify that statement as fact.
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