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Steam generated $1 billion in 2010

By

On February 4, 2011, 5:41 PM

Many have cast doubt on the future of PC gaming, calling the industry a pale shadow of what it used to be. We can't help but disagree with that, especially when you look at the stellar lineup prepared for 2011. Research firm Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) has further confirmed the PC industry's continuing vigor by releasing sales stats for Valve's digital distribution platform, Steam.

Although Valve generally keeps Steam's performance figures under wraps, FADE estimates that the service raked in just shy of $1 billion last year. Revenue supposedly reached $970 million in 2010 and unsurprisingly, December was the service's best month with $213 million in sales. FADE reports that over 180 games cracked the $1 million sales mark with the Call of Duty franchise being the top seller.


COD: Black Ops was the highest grossing title with $98.2m, while 2009's Modern Warfare 2 pulled in $39.4m. Valve's own Left 2 Dead 2 was the third bestselling game with $36m in revenue, while Bad Company 2 and Civilization V hit $25.4 and $21.9m, respectively. Portal, Fallout: New Vegas, Metro 2033, Mafia II, and Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising occupied the bottom five slots, selling $10 to $20m.

User Comments: 39

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  1. I remember the hell it was to install HL2 on my brother in law's PC. Steam has improved a lot since then, though not as much as I had thought it would. But regardless of the platform it kills all the other services with regular great discounts on games people actually want to play.

  2. I think people aren't aware that if steam is running, the games DRM runs along side it. Look at the Deadspace 1 Page on steam and read the bottom. It will tell you that you need an internet connection to activate the game. Same with most EA games, only other one I can think of off the top of my head is Crysis. I don't find steams DRM intrusive, though. Small price to pay for something that installs the game for you and takes care of the CDkey and drivers.

    I would be all for it if steam was the only DRM. I don't want to steal games, I just want to buy them at a reasonable price. Steam sales let me do that. If I don't like the game, so what, I got most of em' for $5 or less anyway.

  3. unless ur in Canada

  4. As long as they continue to produce the best games on the market they'll continue to generate the money. I've bought 4 of those games listed. and all 4 of them are easily some of the best games i've played this year.

  5. Actually... Steam does not produce any game at all, Valve does and none but 2 are from it (L4D2 and Portal).

  6. Steam sales are unreal. I purchased a lot of games that I had previous "trial" versions of off of Steam per the excellent prices including the Unreal package. Frees up you HDD from the ISO and it's nice to pay for the game. BFBC2 was one of the best games I have ever bought and I got it for $6.50 off of Steam! That is crazy gameplay value!

  7. Don't fool yourself, Gamestop is phasing out new games because there is no used market in it.

    There is no used market due to the differing formats between PC and consoles. Not all PC games require the disc to be inserted to play the game. There is no way to verify that the user has uninstalled the game from their PC before Gamestop can purchase and re-sell PC games. Therefore they could potentially be held liable for facilitating in breaking the licensing agreements. Consoles don't have this issue, because they are not playable w/o the disc in every case.

  8. What is Guest talking about? O_o

  9. Kibaruk said:

    Actually... Steam does not produce any game at all, Valve does and none but 2 are from it (L4D2 and Portal).

    And Half Life 1 and 2, and Team Fortress 2, and Lead 4 Dead 1.

    And Portal 2 and DOTA2 are on their way.

  10. Good news for Steam and I'm happy for them, I still however have my disagreements with them like other posters here.

  11. haha dude, you can run steam in offline mode =P

  12. hey

    Well its the walmart on computer games all games at one place,

    Personally steam is getting overflood by garbage games,

    Its a can full of trash,

    Sure have some great feature, still need a lots of work

  13. pVk said:

    Well its the walmart on computer games all games at one place,

    Personally steam is getting overflood by garbage games,

    Its a can full of trash,

    Sure have some great feature, still need a lots of work

    As opposed to getting filled up with what?

    If garbage games are being made, it's not Valve's fault. There's still plenty of indie titles to choose from.

  14. I love steam, I never have to worry about storing the discs, CD keys, most games don't even have the hassle of installation (click next, click accept, next, next next, wait, finish). The only problem I have with steam (and it's not really even a problem with steam) is that when I want to install a game I need to download it, and unfortunately my ISP has a bandwidth cap of 80GB. On top of being convenient it is one of the largest gaming social networks around, see what your friends are playing and buying. Steam is great for indie game creators too, I've seen ads for games that I would have most definitely never even heard of without steam.

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