Steam is a service that sells video games and other digital products online. It was created by Valve Corporation and first launched in September 2003 as a software tool to help users automatically update Valve's games. In late 2005, Steam began selling games made by other companies. The service provides features like online game matching with anti-cheating tools, social networking, and streaming games. The Steam software includes tools for updating games, storing files in the cloud, and offering community tools such as messaging, an in-game screen overlay, discussion forums, and a marketplace for collectible items. The Steam storefront also sells productivity software, game soundtracks, videos, and hardware made by Valve, such as the Valve Index and the Steam Deck.
In 2008, Valve released Steamworks, a tool that helps game developers add Steam features like digital rights management to their games. That year, several game publishers started selling their games on Steam. Initially designed for Windows, Steam was later made available for macOS in 2010 and Linux in 2013. A mobile version of Steam for iOS and Android devices was released in 2012 to help users access online features.
By 2013, Steam was the largest online platform for selling PC games, with about 75% of the market share according to IHS Screen Digest. In 2017, total game sales through Steam reached about $4.3 billion, or 18% of all PC game sales globally, according to Steam Spy. By 2021, Steam had over 34,000 games available and more than 132 million users who actively used the service each month. Steam's success led to the creation of Steam Machine gaming PCs in 2015, including the SteamOS Linux system and Steam Controller. Other products include Steam Link devices for streaming games locally and the Steam Deck, a handheld device released in 2022 for playing Steam games.
History
In the early 2000s, Valve wanted a better way to update its games. At the time, users had to download patches for multiplayer games, which often caused them to disconnect from online play for several days until the updates were installed. To solve this, Valve decided to create a platform that could update games automatically and add stronger anti-piracy and anti-cheat features. Valve asked companies like Microsoft, Yahoo!, and RealNetworks to help build this platform, but they were refused.
Valve started developing its own platform in 2002, using the names "Grid" and "Gazelle." The Steam platform was announced on March 22, 2002, at the Game Developers Conference and began beta testing that same day. Before Steam, Valve had a publishing contract with Sierra Studios. A 2001 version of the contract allowed Valve to sell its games online. In 2002, Valve took Sierra and Vivendi Games to court, claiming the company broke the contract. Sierra responded by suing Valve, saying it violated the agreement by creating a digital store to sell games directly.
Steam officially launched on September 12, 2003. In November 2004, Half-Life 2 became the first major game available on Steam, requiring users to install the Steam client to play retail copies. At the time, some users faced problems playing the game due to legal disputes between Valve and Vivendi, who claimed physical copies of the game could not be activated because the game had not officially been released. Concerns about software ownership and server issues, similar to those during the Counter-Strike launch, also arose.
In 2005, other game developers began releasing their games on Steam, including Rag Doll Kung Fu and Darwinia. In May 2007, ATI included Steam in its GPU driver software and gave free copies of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch to owners of ATI Radeon graphics cards.
In January 2008, Nvidia added Steam to its GeForce GPU driver and gave free copies of Portal: The First Slice to Nvidia hardware owners. In 2011, some Electronic Arts games, such as Crysis 2, Dragon Age II, and Alice: Madness Returns, were removed from Steam because the company’s terms of service prevented it from having its own in-game store for downloadable content. These games later appeared on the Origin service.
In 2019, Ubisoft announced it would stop selling future games on Steam, starting with Tom Clancy's The Division 2, because Valve refused to change its revenue-sharing model. In May 2019, Microsoft began selling its games on Steam in addition to the Microsoft Store.
In 2020, Electronic Arts started publishing some games on Steam and introduced its subscription service, EA Play, on the platform. In 2022, Ubisoft returned to selling its recent games on Steam, beginning with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, stating it was "constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are."
By 2014, Steam sold about $1.5 billion worth of games each year. By 2018, the service had more than 90 million monthly active users. In 2018, Steam’s network delivered 15 billion gigabytes of data, compared to less than 4 billion in 2014.
Features and functionality
Steam's main purpose is to let users buy games and other software and add them to a virtual library. From this library, users can download and install the software as many times as needed. At first, Valve, the company behind Steam, had to be the publisher of all games on Steam because it controlled Steam's database and tools. However, in May 2008, Valve released the Steamworks software development kit (SDK), which allowed other developers to add Steam features to their games without needing Valve's direct help.
Valve wanted to make digital rights management (DRM) less necessary by using traditional anti-piracy methods, such as assigning product keys to users. In March 2009, an update to the Steamworks SDK introduced "Custom Executable Generation" (CEG). This feature creates a unique, encrypted version of a game's files for each user. These files can be installed multiple times and on different devices, and users can make backup copies. To play the game, users must log into Steam to decrypt the files. Normally, this happens online, but after logging in once, users can play offline by using Steam's special offline mode. Developers can choose to use other DRM methods or no DRM at all. For example, some Ubisoft games require the use of its Uplay service instead of Steam.
In September 2008, Steam added Steam Cloud, a service that automatically saves game progress and custom files on Valve's servers. Users can access these files from any device with the Steam client. They can choose to disable this feature for specific games or accounts. In January 2022, Steam Cloud was updated to allow saving game progress while a game is running, not just after it ends. This change was made to support the Steam Deck, a portable gaming device. In May 2012, users could manage their game libraries from remote devices like computers and phones. Product keys sold by third-party retailers can be used on Steam, and users can buy redemption codes from other vendors to add games to their libraries. Steam also provides tools for selling and distributing downloadable content (DLC) for games.
In September 2013, Steam introduced Family Sharing, which allows users to let family members and close friends play most games by authorizing their devices to access the user's library. Authorized users can install and play games locally without the main account being active. They can access saved progress and achievements as long as the main owner is not playing. If the main user starts a game while a shared account is using it, the shared user has a few minutes to save their progress or buy the game for their own account. In January 2014, Family View was added, letting parents set limits on children's accounts, such as restricting access to Steam features or purchased games. In September 2024, a more advanced version called "Steam Families" was released, allowing up to six users to share games from one account, with separate game saves and profiles, and better parental controls.
Valve's acceptable use policy states that it can block users from accessing their games or Steam services if VAC (Valve's Anti-Cheat) software detects cheating, selling accounts, or trading games to exploit price differences. Initially, blocked users lost access to all their games, which caused some users to lose access due to minor issues. Valve later changed its policy to restrict blocked users to offline play only, preventing them from using Steam Community features. Users also lose access to their games and accounts if they refuse to accept changes to Steam's end-user license agreements. This happened in August 2012. In April 2015, Valve allowed developers to set bans for their games, which are enforced through Steam.
The Steam client includes a digital store called the Steam Store, where users can buy games. Once purchased, a software license is permanently linked to the user's Steam account, allowing them to download the game on any compatible device. Licenses can be transferred to other accounts under certain conditions. Game content is delivered from servers worldwide using a special file transfer system. Steam supports multiple currencies, depending on the user's location. In December 2010, Steam began accepting WebMoney payments, and from April 2016 to December 2017, it supported Bitcoin before stopping due to price volatility and fees. Steam checks the user's region, and some games may only be available in specific areas due to release dates, classifications, or publisher agreements. Since 2010, users have helped translate parts of Steam into other languages. In October 2018, Vietnamese and Latin American Spanish were officially added to Steam's supported languages. Steam also lets users buy downloadable content and in-game items for certain games, such as Team Fortress 2. In February 2015, this feature was expanded to include third-party games. Achievements, similar to those on the Xbox 360, were added in November 2007.
Valve works with developers and publishers to offer discounts on games daily, weekly, or during themed sales, such as holidays or specific genres. Large sales, like the annual Summer and Holiday sales, often include special features. Since 2016, Steam has held a Lunar New Year sale, though it sometimes overlaps with the Spring Sale.
Users can also buy games or software as gifts for other Steam users. Before May 2017, users could keep gifted items in their inventory until they chose to send them. However, this led to a gray market where users in low-price regions bought games to sell in high-price regions. In August 2016, Valve changed its policy to require immediate gifting for games with VAC or Game Ban features, which also helped prevent cheating. In May 2017, this rule was expanded to all games.
Storefront curation
Until 2012, Valve chose which games were added to the Steam service. These games were limited to those supported by major developers or smaller studios with proven success. After 2012, Valve worked to allow more games on Steam while reducing its direct control over the approval process, except for ensuring games work on the platforms listed by publishers. In 2017, a Steam team member noted that Valve recognized its dominant position in PC game sales and wanted to avoid deciding which games were sold. However, Valve also knew that too much freedom could lead to poor-quality games and difficulty for users to find good ones.
In July 2012, Valve launched Steam Greenlight to let Steam users decide which games were added. Developers could share details about their games, including early versions, and users could support them by voting. Valve would then add the most-supported games to Steam. However, early complaints about too many fake or inappropriate submissions led Valve to charge developers $100 to list a game, with the money going to charity. Smaller developers worried about the cost, so Valve later allowed free submissions for ideas, though these votes were only visible to the developers. Non-game software could also be voted onto Steam through Greenlight.
Many developers criticized Greenlight because few games were approved despite user support. In 2013, Valve’s leader, Gabe Newell, said the company planned to remove its role as a bottleneck by creating an open marketplace. On Greenlight’s first anniversary, Valve approved 100 games to show this shift.
In June 2017, Valve replaced Greenlight with Steam Direct. Developers now pay a fee (between $100 and $5,000) and complete forms for Valve to publish games on Steam. After applying, developers must wait 30 days for Valve to check that the game works properly and has no harmful content. Valve set the fee at $100 after community feedback and promised to improve discovery tools. If a game earns $1,000 in sales, the fee is refunded. Most remaining Greenlight games were approved, though some were not ready for release. Valve expected more games to join Steam with Direct. Some groups, like Raw Fury and Fig, offered to pay the fee for indie developers who couldn’t afford it.
To help users find games they might like, Valve avoided paid advertising or special placement, which could create unfair advantages. Instead, it used algorithms and automatic tools. In 2014, the "Discovery Update" let users become curators, recommending games to others. This update increased Steam Storefront usage and sales by 18%. A second update in 2016 gave users more control over what games they saw and allowed developers to customize their store pages.
By 2017, the second Discovery update increased the number of games shown on Steam’s front page by 42%, leading to more sales. In 2016, more games met Valve’s success metric of selling $200,000 in their first 90 days. In 2017, the "Curator Connect" program let curators and developers match based on preferences, reducing key reselling and misuse of the system.
To address fake games (those using reused assets with little innovation), Valve added Steam Explorers. These users review underperforming games to confirm if they are original or fake, allowing Valve to remove problematic titles.
In 2019, Valve introduced Steam Labs to test new discovery features, like an AI-powered recommender that suggests games based on past purchases. A 2019 Discovery update aimed to help niche games gain visibility but faced criticism from indie developers who saw fewer promotions for their games.
In 2022, Steam Charts were added to track the most popular and best-selling games on Steam, including weekly and monthly data. This replaced an earlier statistics page.
Games and account policies
In June 2015, Valve created an official way for buyers to ask for money back. If a player played a game for less than two hours within the first two weeks, they could get a refund. Before June 2015, Valve did not allow refunds, except in special cases like problems with digital rights management or false advertising.
Games that are no longer sold for any reason can still be downloaded and played by people who already bought them.
When Steam Direct launched, Valve stopped reviewing games before they were published on Steam. This led to some games trying to trick Steam users. Starting in June 2018, Valve removed games and developers it called "trolls." In September 2018, Valve said that trolls on Steam "are not trying to make or sell games in good faith." For example, Valve’s Doug Lombardi said the game Active Shooter, which let players take the role of a school shooter or a SWAT team member, was trolling because it aimed to cause conflict. Within a month of this statement, Valve removed about 170 games from Steam.
Valve also removed games that could harm the Steam trading card system or unfairly increase a user’s Steam level. Some changes caused problems for real games, like Wandersong, which was flagged in January 2019 due to its positive reviews.
Valve has removed games that break its rules, such as copying game assets, changing reviews, misusing Steam tools, or acting harmfully toward users.
Since 2022, Valve has banned games using blockchain-like technologies, such as NFTs, because their markets are unclear. In 2023, Valve allowed games using AI-generated content but warned developers to ensure they had rights to that content. By January 2024, Valve required games using AI to explain this on their store pages and show how they avoided illegal content. In February 2025, Valve banned games that included paid ads as part of gameplay.
Valve has also removed or threatened to remove games with inappropriate or mature content, though there was confusion about what counted as inappropriate. For example, House Party by Eek Games had scenes of nudity and sexual encounters, leading to its removal after criticism from a religious group. Eek Games later added censor bars to the game, allowing it to return to Steam. In 2018, Valve asked developers of anime-style games like HuniePop to address sexual content or face removal, though later allowed these games to stay.
In June 2018, Valve updated its content policy to let developers decide what mature content (like violence or nudity) their games included. Players can block games with mature content from appearing in the store, and developers are encouraged to label their games clearly. Valve also promised tools to help developers deal with controversy.
Until these tools were ready, some adult-themed games were delayed. Negligee: Love Stories was one of the first adult-themed games offered after the tools were added in September 2018. The developers limited the game’s sale in over 20 regions to avoid legal issues. Valve banned games with characters who look underage, even if the story says they are adults.
In March 2019, Valve refused to host Rape Day, a game where players control a serial rapist in a zombie apocalypse. Valve said it respected the developers’ right to create content but felt the game’s themes made it hard to find an audience.
In December 2020, Valve blocked games with "Adults Only 18+" pornographic content in Germany after a complaint. In November 2024, the Anti-Defamation League accused Valve of allowing hate and anti-Semitic content on Steam, citing over 40,000 groups with extreme views. Senator Mark Warner asked Valve to review its policies.
In July 2025, Valve updated its policies to remove games that might break rules set by payment processors, banks, or internet providers. This led to about 400 mature-rated games being removed from Steam. Valve said this change was made to follow these rules.
Platforms, devices and regions
In 2003, Valve created the Steam Hardware Survey before Half-Life 2 was released. At that time, no one knew how many gamers used different types of computer parts, like CPUs and GPUs. To learn this, Valve used the survey, which automatically collected hardware information with users’ permission through the Steam client. This helped Valve set hardware goals for Half-Life 2 to work on as many computers as possible. Since then, Valve has continued using the Steam Hardware Survey to collect hardware data and share the results with other game developers. This helps developers understand current computer trends and decide when to stop supporting older hardware and software.
Steam was first released only for Microsoft Windows in 2003 but later became available on other platforms. Recent versions of the Steam client use the Chromium Embedded Framework. To use newer features, Steam now uses 64-bit versions of Chromium, which means it no longer works on older operating systems like Windows XP and Vista. Steam also needs security features found in newer Windows versions. Support for XP and Vista ended in 2019. Users still on these systems can use the Steam client but cannot access newer features. About 0.2% of Steam users were affected when this change happened. In March 2023, Valve announced that Steam would stop supporting Windows 7 and 8 on January 1, 2024.
Valve announced a Steam client for macOS in March 2010. This came after the Steam beta client was updated to use the WebKit web browser engine instead of the Trident engine from Internet Explorer. Valve shared images with the Mac community and gaming websites to tease the release. These images included Valve game characters with Apple logos and parodies of old Mac advertisements. Valve also made a video that honored Apple’s 1984 Macintosh commercial to announce Half-Life 2’s availability on macOS. Some images from this video were used earlier to promote the Mac Steam client.
Steam for macOS was originally planned for April 2010 but was delayed until May 12, 2010. Along with the Steam client, developers gained access to tools like the cross-platform Source engine and Steamworks’ platform and network features. The Steam Play feature allows Mac users who bought compatible Windows games to download Mac versions for free. Steam Cloud and many multiplayer PC games also support cross-platform play.
When Apple stopped supporting Intel-based Macs after the release of macOS Tahoe in late 2025, Valve updated the Steam beta client to include native support for Apple silicon, eliminating the need for Rosetta 2 emulation.
In July 2012, Valve announced a Steam client for Linux based on the Ubuntu distribution. This followed months of speculation, especially after Phoronix found evidence of Linux development in recent Steam and Valve game builds. Newell, a Valve leader, said making Steam and games work on Linux is a key strategy. He criticized the closed nature of Windows 8 as harmful to the PC gaming community and emphasized Linux’s openness. Valve helps developers bring their games to Linux by making it easy to publish on Steam and run on Linux.
The Linux client team worked for a year before the announcement to prove the port was possible. By the time of the official release, a nearly complete Steam client for Linux had been developed and tested on Ubuntu. Internal beta testing started in October 2012, and external testing began in November. Open beta clients for Linux were available by late December 2012, and the official release happened in February 2013. Valve’s Linux team promised that Left 4 Dead 2, the first game on Linux, would run smoothly and connect with Windows and Mac versions. After that, Valve worked on porting other games to Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. By October 2013, Steam versions for Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux were released. By June 2014, over 500 Linux-compatible games were on Steam, and by February 2019, there were 5,800 native Linux games on Steam.
In August 2018, Valve released a beta version of Proton (later called Steam Play), an open-source tool that lets Linux users run Windows games on Linux through Steam. Proton includes tools like Wine and DXVK. It also supports Steam-compatible controllers, even those not compatible with Windows. In February 2022, Valve’s Steam Deck handheld computer, which runs SteamOS 3.0 based on Arch Linux, used Proton to support Windows games without native Linux ports. Before the Steam Deck’s release, Valve worked with middleware developers to ensure their tools worked with Proton and maximize game compatibility. This included collaborating with anti-cheat systems like Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye. Valve also created a system to rate games based on how well they work on the Steam Deck.
Support for Nvidia’s DLSS technology was added to Proton in June 2021, but this feature is not available on the Steam Deck, which uses AMD hardware.
In March 2022, Google offered a prerelease version of Steam for Chromebooks, and it entered public beta in November 2022. In August 2025, Google announced that Steam support for Chromebooks would end in 2026.
At E3 2010, Newell announced that Steamworks would be available on the PlayStation 3 with Portal 2. Steamworks first appeared on consoles with Portal 2’s PlayStation 3 release. Features like cross-platform play, instant messaging, Steam Cloud for saved games, and the ability to download Portal 2 from Steam (Windows and Mac) were offered. Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive also supports Steamworks and cross-platform features on the PlayStation 3, including keyboard and mouse controls. Valve hopes to expand Steam features on consoles through future content.
Newell said Valve wanted to bring Steam to the Xbox 360 through Counter-Strike: Global Offensive but later confirmed cross-platform play would not be in the final version. Valve said limitations in Xbox Live regulations, which require new content to be certified before distribution, prevented Steamworks from working on the Xbox 360.
In late January 2012, Valve released an official Steam client for iOS and Android devices after a short beta period. The app lets users log into their accounts to browse the store, manage their games, and access other features.
Reception and impact
Steam's success has led to some criticism for supporting DRM and for being an effective monopoly. In 2012, Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman called DRM using Steam on Linux "unethical," but still better than Windows.
Steam's customer service has been highly criticized, with users citing poor response times or lack of response. In March 2015, Valve received a failing "F" grade from the Better Business Bureau due to many complaints about how Valve handled Steam. Erik Johnson, a Valve employee, said, "we don't feel like our customer service support is where it needs to be right now." Johnson added that the company planned to improve customer support features in the Steam client and be more responsive. In May 2017, Valve hired more customer service staff and shared pages showing the number and type of customer service requests it handled over the last 90 days. On average, 75,000 requests were entered each day. Refunds were the largest category of requests, and Valve could resolve them within hours. Account security and recovery requests followed. Valve stated that 98% of all service requests were processed within 24 hours of being filed.
In August 2011, Valve said Steam's revenue, estimated to be about $1 billion in 2010, was similar to the revenue from its published games. Gabe Newell, a Valve leader, said the company was "tremendously profitable," earning more profit per employee than companies like Google or Apple. By the end of 2015, Steam had 125 million active accounts. By August 2017, the company reported 27 million new active accounts since January 2016, bringing the total number of active users to at least 150 million. Most accounts were from North America and Western Europe, but there was significant growth in accounts from Asia around 2017. This growth was helped by efforts to make the Steam client more accessible in different languages and to offer more currency options for buyers. In September 2014, 1.4 million accounts belonged to Australian users; this number grew to 2.2 million by October 2015.
Valve also considers concurrent users — the number of accounts logged in at the same time — a key measure of the platform's success. In August 2017, Valve reported a peak of 14 million concurrent players, up from 8.4 million in 2015. There were 33 million active daily users and 67 million active monthly users. By January 2018, the peak online count reached 18.5 million, with over 47 million daily active users. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when many people stayed home, Steam saw a concurrent player count of over 23 million in March. Some games also had record-breaking concurrent counts. The highest concurrent player count reached 39.2 million by December 2024, partly due to the release of Marvel Rivals and Path of Exile 2. By February 2025, the count reached 40 million with the release of Monster Hunter Wilds.
In October 2025, Steam reached a new all-time concurrent user peak of 41.6 million, surpassing its previous record by over a million. This increase was largely due to the release of Battlefield 6. An analysis by Alinea Analytics estimated that in the first 11 months of 2025, Steam brought in $16.3 billion in revenue.
Steam has grown from seven games in 2004 to over 30,000 by 2019, with additional non-gaming products, such as creation software, DLC, and videos, numbering over 20,000. More than 50,000 games were on the service as of February 2021. The growth of games on Steam is due to changes in Valve's curation approach, which allows publishers to add games without direct involvement from Valve. The addition of Greenlight and Direct also increased the number of games on the service. Before Greenlight, Valve saw about five new games published each week. Greenlight expanded this to about seventy, and the number doubled to 180 per week after the introduction of Direct.
Although Steam provides direct sales data to developers and publishers, it does not share public sales data. In 2011, Valve's Jason Holtman said the company believed such data was outdated for a digital market. Data that Valve does provide cannot be released without permission because of a non-disclosure agreement.
Developers and publishers have asked for sales metrics to help them judge the potential success of a game by comparing it to similar games. Algorithms that used publicly available data from user profiles to estimate sales led to the creation of the website Steam Spy in 2015. Steam Spy was reasonably accurate, but in April 2018, Valve added new privacy settings that hid user game profiles by default. This change was part of compliance with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The update made Steam Spy unusable