Every Day, More Than 100,000 New Buyers Appear on Steam

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Steam acquired an average of 109,000 new first-time buyers every day between August 2024 and August 2025.
02
Simplified Chinese is the most popular language on Steam, used by 33.6% of the platform's users, followed by English at 33%.
03
Over 500 games generated more than $4 million in revenue during 2024, with that figure projected to increase by approximately 20% by the end of 2025.
04
The fastest-growing markets for new Steam users from 2020 to 2025 are Japan, Brazil, China, Germany, and the USA.
05
Steam's 'Deal of the Day' promotion is expected to feature 4,000 games in 2025, up from 2,800 in 2024, due to an increase in available promotional slots.
06
Russian language usage on Steam grew from 8.2% to 8.4% between 2024 and 2025, while English usage declined from 33.4% to 33%.

Summary

Valve’s presentation at the Gamescom 2025 Devcom conference highlights the sustained growth and evolving demographics of the Steam platform. The data, presented by Valve’s Business Development Manager Erik Peterson, underscores the store's continued expansion through new user acquisition and shifting global language preferences.

Between August 2024 and August 2025, Steam attracted an average of 109,000 first-time purchasers daily. This growth is driven by key emerging markets, with Japan, Brazil, China, Germany, and the United States identified as the fastest-growing regions for new users between 2020 and 2025. Language distribution on the platform reflects this global reach; simplified Chinese remains the most popular language at 33.6%, while English usage saw a slight decline to 33%. Other significant language groups include Russian at 8.4%, Spanish at 4.6%, and Brazilian Portuguese at 2.8%.

Financial performance for developers on the platform remains robust. In 2024, over 500 titles generated more than $4 million in annual revenue, a figure projected to increase by approximately 20% by the end of 2025. Valve is actively supporting this developer success through promotional tools, specifically the "Deal of the Day" feature. After featuring 2,800 games in 2024—90% of which were new releases—the program is expanding its capacity to accommodate roughly 4,000 games in 2025. These findings illustrate a platform that is successfully scaling its infrastructure to match a diversifying and increasingly active global user base.