Steam
PC and Valve (Steam) · Launched in 2003
- Family
- PC and Valve (Steam)
- Launch
- 2003
- Type
- PC store and platform
- In the family
- #1 of 3 in launch order
A service, not a device: the number Valve publishes is the peak of 42 million people online at the same time, in its 2025 review.
About the family
Valve's Steam went live on September 12, 2003, and became the largest PC game store. In its 2025 year in review, Valve said Steam reached 42 million people online at the same time and delivered about 100 exabytes of downloads that year. In 2022 the company launched the Steam Deck, a handheld PC sold from February 25 of that year. The Steam Machine, a living-room desktop PC, arrived in 2026, first sold through a sign-up list with a random draw.
Coming to this page: controllers, trivia and freely licensed photos with credit.
Sources
Numbers checked against the sources below on 08/11/2026. These are the figures the companies publish for investors; Nintendo updates them every quarter, and Sony shows the latest figure released for each device, with different dates.