Those still clinging to the narrative that PC gaming is dead should seriously consider reevaluating their stance. Valve at the Casual Connect USA conference in Seattle this week revealed that Steam, its digital distribution platform for computer users, currently enjoys 67 million monthly active players.
For comparison, Microsoft said last month that it had 53 million active Xbox Live users in the most recent quarter.
Drilling a bit deeper, Valve shared that it now has 33 million daily active players with a peak concurrent user count of 14 million (the peak in 2015, by comparison, was just 8.4 million). What's more, since January 2016, Steam has had 27 million new purchasers which works out to nearly 1.5 million transactions per month.
Valve owes much of its continued success to international growth.
According to GeekWire, Asia just a few years ago represented only a few percentage points as it relates to Steam's worldwide sales. That figure has since climbed to 17 percent which, according to Valve's Tom Giardino, is a direct result of efforts to localize stores and accept additional payment methods.
The diversity of content available on Steam is another contributing factor. In fact, Giardino said he views Steam's robust library as one of the platform's biggest assets.
Valve is set to host its annual Dota 2 tournament next week in Seattle with a record-setting prize pool of more than $23.5 million.