There was a internal valve study saying they have the most per employee earnings than any other software company. Well, Valve isn’t strictly a software company but you get what I mean.
So yeah, the chart at the bottom makes sense.
FridaFrida3789
Wow, Valve sure knows how to keep it lean!
theb3arjevv
They pay a lot up front but they also have some of the worst benefits of any tech company. Not that that’s a bad thing at all. They give their employees the autonomy of just having the cash and spending however they like. But those cash salary numbers will be at least a little inflated because of it.
Cord_Cutter_VR
There is another chart that shows how much they bring in from game sales commision, for 2021 it was ~ $2 Billion (this is what Valve keeps from the revenue share). It also had 2 other lines for Profit margin.
Their gross profit margin, which was 75%, so that $2 Billion in their gross profit, which means they had $8 Billion in total game sales. Then there was Operating Profit, which is their profit after all costs are taken out, and that profit margin is 60%.
So of that $2 Billion in 2021 they brought in, 60% of that, or $1.2 Billion was profit for them.
After doing some research, 10% is average operating profit, and 20% is excellent operating profit, Valve’s operating profit is 6x higher than the average, and 3x higher than what is considered excellent.
So them taking 20-30% revenue share is extremely profitable.
I would love to be a good enough engineer to work at valve
Alixey
There’s a common misconception about staff at Valve. They actually have some hundreds of employees correctly stated in the article, but they also do have several contractors which are not categorized as employees and are deployed across multiple projects (ex. Steam Support). They also have various outside suppliers who handle the financial management of various European countries, for which they pay taxes in Europe even though they are an American company.
Mother-Jicama8257
Crazy how they have all these resources but cannot dedicate anyone to improve their security. Counter Strike 2 is so awful to play right now with their approach to Anti Cheat, net code, ranking systems, and economy
Nighters
best payed employee must mean best in their field and they cannot release fix for CS2:D
8 Comments
There was a internal valve study saying they have the most per employee earnings than any other software company. Well, Valve isn’t strictly a software company but you get what I mean.
So yeah, the chart at the bottom makes sense.
Wow, Valve sure knows how to keep it lean!
They pay a lot up front but they also have some of the worst benefits of any tech company. Not that that’s a bad thing at all. They give their employees the autonomy of just having the cash and spending however they like. But those cash salary numbers will be at least a little inflated because of it.
There is another chart that shows how much they bring in from game sales commision, for 2021 it was ~ $2 Billion (this is what Valve keeps from the revenue share). It also had 2 other lines for Profit margin.
Their gross profit margin, which was 75%, so that $2 Billion in their gross profit, which means they had $8 Billion in total game sales. Then there was Operating Profit, which is their profit after all costs are taken out, and that profit margin is 60%.
So of that $2 Billion in 2021 they brought in, 60% of that, or $1.2 Billion was profit for them.
After doing some research, 10% is average operating profit, and 20% is excellent operating profit, Valve’s operating profit is 6x higher than the average, and 3x higher than what is considered excellent.
So them taking 20-30% revenue share is extremely profitable.
https://imgur.com/RX8AbUX
I would love to be a good enough engineer to work at valve
There’s a common misconception about staff at Valve. They actually have some hundreds of employees correctly stated in the article, but they also do have several contractors which are not categorized as employees and are deployed across multiple projects (ex. Steam Support). They also have various outside suppliers who handle the financial management of various European countries, for which they pay taxes in Europe even though they are an American company.
Crazy how they have all these resources but cannot dedicate anyone to improve their security. Counter Strike 2 is so awful to play right now with their approach to Anti Cheat, net code, ranking systems, and economy
best payed employee must mean best in their field and they cannot release fix for CS2:D