It's no mystery that Valve's Steam platform continues to grow at a steady rate. Over the past few years, we've reported several new concurrent peak player records, the last of which was recorded a month ago with around 41.6 million users online at the same time.
Unsurprisingly, this also translates into higher sales on the store. According to Rhys Elliott from Alinea Analytics, Steam has already generated sales for around $16.2 billion in 2025, a 5.7% increase over 2024's estimated $15.33 billion. Do note that 2024's data point is, of course, final, whereas there are still 44 days left in 2025, and it's arguably the period when people spend more due to Thanksgiving, Black Friday sales, Holiday gifts, and so on. It would not be a surprise to see Steam break the $17 billion threshold by year's end.
Valve takes a substantial cut out of each sale conducted on the store: 30% until the product reaches $10 million in revenue, 25% between $10 million and $50 million, and 20% over $50 million. It's one of the ways the Epic Games Store and later the Microsoft Store have attempted to compete with Valve's store (which many game developers consider a monopoly) by offering a higher revenue per sale than studios can get on Steam. On those stores, developers only pay a 12% fee and get 88% of the sale.
Epic also famously paid hefty sums to secure big temporary game exclusives, such as Borderlands 3, on its store. At one point, Epic founder Tim Sweeney even challenged Valve to match the Epic Games Store's revenue split, stating that he would have ended the exclusivity program if they agreed to do so.
Valve never flinched, though, thanks to the unwavering loyalty of hundreds of millions of gamers. While Epic did manage to carve for itself a sizable platform on the EGS, between exclusives, free games, and the evergreen Fortnite, Steam did not suffer in the least and, as shown by these figures, keeps growing.
Alinea Analytics estimates that Valve has already earned $4 billion in 2025 from the sales on its store. With these numbers, it's perhaps no wonder that its president, co-founder, and majority stakeholder, Gabe Newell, has a lot of money to spare.
Earlier this month, website Boat International revealed that Newell has just received his latest superyacht, a 111-meter entirely custom wonder called Leviathan. Produced by Oceanco (which was also acquired by the Valve owner earlier this year), it can accommodate up to 22 guests plus 33 crew members. It features two gyms, a spa, a bar, a basketball half-court, a beach club, a small hospital, and, of course, an entertainment room equipped with fifteen top-of-the-line gaming PCs.
With Steam poised to expand its ecosystem even further with the launches of the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller products early next year, Valve's billionaire owner, who recently said he lives full-time at sea but still works remotely on various company projects, will probably be able to afford more of these superyachts in the near future.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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