14 DAY TRIAL // Valve Software has announced that at the end of 2009, the Steam digital distribution service reached 25 million active users, which is 25% more than at the same point in 2008. Ten million of those who are holding accounts have also created profiles for the community features of the service. It's quite an important landmark moment for a service that started really humble, as a simple way of offering up patches for Valve made videogames.
Actual software sales that went through Steam in 2009 grew by an impressive 205%, with the company pointing out that it's the fifth year in a row during which growth has gone over 100%, testimony to both the potential of digital distribution for the PC market and to the excellent service Steam offers.
2009 was also an important year for the Steamworks component included in titles like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II from Relic and THQ, Empire: Total War from The Creative Assembly and SEGA, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from Infinity Ward and Activision. The suite allows developers to be protected against piracy while also offering an easy way to deploy patches and downloadable content.
Gabe Newell, the president of Valve, issued a statement saying that “Steam turned five years old in March 2009. With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years - such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks - we've seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform. As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day.”
Steam is renowned for the various sales it does on a weekly basis that allow gamers to pick up older or more indie titles on the cheap. Needless to say, the service will continue to grow throughout 2010.