In summary:
- PCWorld reports Steam delivered 100 exabytes of data in 2025, equivalent to 2 billion Blu-ray discs, marking a 20% increase from 2024.
- The platform handles 190 terabytes of downloads per minute while supporting over 40 million concurrent users, demonstrating massive scale.
- Despite facing legal challenges over Counter-Strike loot boxes and competition from Fortnite and Roblox, Valve continues expanding with Steam Deck and new hardware initiatives.
When was the last time you bought a PC game at a brick-and-mortar retail store? I know I bought the original Gears of War on sale sometime around 2008. Since then, I think it’s all been digital downloads, mostly from Steam. In 2025, Valve’s dominating platform delivered 100 exabytes of data to users—that’s 100 million terabytes of data (or 2 billion standard dual-layer Blu-ray discs).
As Valve explains, that’s up from 80 exabytes in 2024. Steam users average 190 terabytes of downloads per minute, which isn’t all that shocking since the platform has peaked at over 40 million concurrent users during big game launches. Perhaps the most remarkable part of this is that Steam remains pretty darn stable despite all of that. Aside from some hiccups around the big Steam store sales, I can’t remember any big outages in 2025.
Steam is the de facto home of PC gaming, but it isn’t an exclusive one. Big portions of gaming are trying to carve out their own fiefdoms, notably Fortnite (which is only available on Epic’s own game store) and Roblox (which has 13.7 million active players as I write this article and nearly 50 million at its peak in 2025). Roblox is also a well-known center of child exploitation and endangerment, allegedly. But Valve doesn’t exactly have the moral high ground there, as New York state is currently suing it for operating its loot boxes and unlock keys in games like Counter-Strike as an online casino.
Valve has leveraged its position of power to create the Steam Deck portable, and it’s even licensing the Linux-based SteamOS to partners like Lenovo. It’s also having another crack at both living room console-style PC gaming with a revived Steam Machine and another push for virtual reality with the Steam Frame headset, but both of those products have had a rocky road to Dublin launchin’ thanks to the RAM crisis.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 15-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.