The gaming industry is currently reeling from one crisis after another. However, the PC giant Steam is faring excellently in comparison. New figures reveal just how incredibly successful Valve has been with the platform alone in the first half of 2026.
Xbox is in an identity crisis, Sony is making negative headlines because it wants to ban physical discs from 2028, and prices for hardware and games are becoming increasingly expensive – it seems like the gaming industry is on fire right now.
One player, however, seems to be relatively unaffected: Steam. The platform from Valve and its head Gabe Newell is currently more successful than ever before. According to reports from Alinea, the company is estimated to have recorded $11.1 billion in gross revenue in the first half of 2026.
This would be a record for Steam and an increase of 14.5% compared to the first half of 2025. The success is the result of an unusual corporate management style.
Currently, version 1.0 of Palworld is encouraging many players to access Steam – at an astonishingly fair price:
Small but incredibly successful
Why is Steam so successful? Measured by the enormous figures, Valve is pursuing an unusual strategy. The company is still not publicly traded and has been privately owned since its inception in 1996.
Gabe Newell serves as CEO; otherwise, there are no hierarchies or managers at Valve, unlike other companies. Also, regarding team size, the company is very streamlined. Between 2012 and 2021, there were an average of about 350 employees, a number that has likely changed only slightly. For comparison: Ubisoft had around 18,666 employees as of the end of September 2024 (via pcgamer.com)
By itself, Steam is said to have already reached $17 billion in revenue by the end of 2025 (via tomshardware.com). Calculated per employee, that results in a per capita revenue of about $50 million.
According to Alinea, other reasons for Steam’s tremendous success include:
- Higher prices for new releases
- Viral hits, especially in the co-op genre
- Third-party companies like Ubisoft are back on Steam
- New content and players from Asia, especially China, are found on Steam
It will be exciting to see if the upward trend for Valve continues. Given that the first half of 2026 was even 8% more successful than the second half of 2025 (including the Christmas business!), it would not be surprising if the figures are surpassed once again.
Do you use Steam as your main platform on PC or do you prefer to wander around in other shops and libraries? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments. Not everything Valve touches turns to gold. MyMMO editor Benedikt believes: Valve has just finished with the Steam Machine and no one noticed
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