PC gaming may have had its fair share of issues related to prohibitive pricing of hardware and games but that hasn’t stopped digital distribution platform Steam from having its best year ever in terms of revenue. Steam revenue in 2017 hit $4.3 billion. What’s telling is that half of this amount is due to just 100 games on the service. There are over 21,000 games on Steam. The news of Steam’s 2017 revenue emerged during a GDC 2018 panel where SteamSpy founder Sergey Galyonkin said the $800 million revenue increase over 2016’s $3.5 billion made 2017 Steam’s biggest year yet.
SteamSpy is a third-party stats service that aggregates data based on Web API provided by Valve — Steam’s creator. This $4.3 billion figure of course, does not include revenue from micro-transactions, DLC, or in-app purchases. 7,696 games were released in 2017 on Steam.
Leading the pack is battle royale sensation PUBG with close to $600 million in revenue followed by Counter Strike: Global Offensive with $120 million, and GTA V with $83 million. Of the top 20, seven were released before 2017. These include The Witcher 3, Dark Souls 3, Rocket League, and Rainbow Six Siege to name a few.
Furthermore, Steam in 2017 saw 63 million accounts created with a total of 291 million accounts. In the last two weeks, 57 million players were active, and 25% of all users have played a game during the same time period.
If you're a fan of video games, check out Transition, Gadgets 360's gaming podcast. You can listen to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS, or just listen to this week's episode by hitting the play button below.
Catch the latest from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360, at our CES 2026 hub.