STEAM – Powered by Covid-19
Steam the PC gaming platform has seen significant user increase over the last 12 months in comparison to its previous year. What is the one variable that’s changed – we’ve been hit with a global pandemic, isolating us to our homes across the world. People have been working from home, kids and university students are learning on-line and millions have lost their jobs but during this pandemic Steam appears to be a platform on the rise.
Steam is owned and created by Valve corporation and has been operation since 2004 and has garnered a large global community who use it daily to play video games. During this pandemic when social restrictions and isolation are in place globally, Steam has increased its user base by more than 8 million people worldwide. This significant increase supports the theory that a substantial number of people have found themselves with more free time and more flexibility and this has produced an environment where gaming has grown significantly on this platform.
Data from SteamDB shows that from December 2019 to April 2020 the amount of active concurrent players on Steam increased from 16/17 million players per month (a number it has held since late 2017) to just over 24 million as of April 2020. An increase of 8.49 million players. During Steams 10 plus years history as a gaming platform it has slowly increased its player base with very few spikes in active player numbers or general concurrent player numbers. This increase in Steam’s players is the largest seen in concurrent players since Steam began in 2004, so this rise is acutely out of the ordinary.
From February to March 2020, Steam gained a user increase of four million concurrent players, this substantial increase to its player base reflects how significantly the pandemic (social restrictions and isolation factors) has created an environment where gaming has offered a platform for social interaction and entertainment.
Across the top ten Steam games there has been a considerable increase in peak player bases, with some of the top ten games breaking their all-time concurrent player record in the last few months. This data directly falls within the timeline of Covid-19 restrictions and supports the theory that social restriction and isolation has created a situation where significantly more people are gaming on Steam.
Counter Strike, currently the most popular game on Steam has in the last 3 months far surpassed its previous player peek, it currently sits at 1.3 million concurrent players which is an increase from the record of 900,000 it had been unable to pass since setting in May 2016. Many other Top Ten games have also seen an increase to their player base. Dota 2 had, until recently, been on a downward trajectory has now gained over 100,000 players since January 2020, a significant increase to the previously dwindling player base.
The gap between peak players and minimum players since the start of the year has been closing and is the closest it has ever been. Prior to this upturn in players, the gap sat at between two and three million players at any one time, with the all-time lowest gap being from June to August 2019 where the gap was close to 2 million players but quickly peaked to 3.5 million players months later. From its previous lowest point to now, the gap has dropped to 1.3 million and appears to show no signs of extending.
Steam’s Player numbers have been climbing since September of 2019; however, the Covid-19 restrictions caused a significant peak in player numbers far surpassing the steady increase of pre Covid-19 numbers on Steam. From August of 2019 to April 2020 Steam has recorded its second longest timespan of positive player retention with a gain of just under 8.5million players. Steam’s longest span of positive player retention happened nearly Eight years ago between July 2011 to April 2012 and gained the platform just over 1.7 million players. This current stretch of time has far surpassed its predecessor with over Six and a half million more players coming to the platform when the two periods of time are compared.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the PC games market, with more people than ever before playing games. The Steam platform has recorded increases across its library of games as well as to its general user base as a platform.
This monumental increase in players has not only been observed in PC gaming, that similar increases have been observed across the games industry, according to an article from the Washington Post that Nintendo, Microsoft and Activision have been thriving during the Covid-19 Quarantine (Smith, 2020). The Covid-19 restrictions has had an enormous impact on the gaming industry especially the Steam platform and has provided an environment to keep people entertained and safe.
Bibliography
Smith, N., 2020. The Giants Of The Video Game Industry Have Thrived In The Pandemic. Can The Success Continue?. [online] Available at: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/05/12/video-game-industry-coronavirus/> [Accessed 13 May 2020].
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