Steam Biz Development Director – “We have 20 million users”

In an exclusive interview with GamesIndustry.Biz, Valve’s Jason Holtman revealed Steam currently has 20 million connected users with a reach in 21 languages.

When asked about their current market share, Holtman declined to reveal those numbers but mentioned they believe they are the market leader, which no one really doubts.

Part of that success has been extraordinary deals every weekend. Weekend sales have been a major hit for Steam as more publishers and developers are willing to take chances on extreme discounts to generate massive sales that continue to generate growth even when the price goes back up.

As far as other companies being threatened by the size of Steam, Holtman feels that is a mistake:

“In terms of whether we get too big or maybe our content shouldn’t be on the platform, it’s just doesn’t make much sense. Because the content helps the platform grow.”

Steam is now 5 years old and was originally created as a technology backend for games like Counter-Strike to keep the community of players together and has evolved into an industry leading digital distribution platform.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/valves-jason-holtman-interview