2025 was a huge year for Steam, and it looks like the platform is starting 2026 with that same momentum. The PC storefront ended last year on a very strong note, generating more than $1.6 billion in revenue in December alone. That figure was significantly higher than what Steam made in December 2024, showing just how fast the platform continues to grow. And now, only a few days into the new year, Steam has already broken another major record.
Back in October last year, Steam set a new all-time high for concurrent users. On Sunday, October 12, more than 41 million players were logged in at the same time. That spike was largely driven by major new releases, especially Battlefield 6, which launched on October 10 and reached a peak of over 747,000 concurrent players on its first day.
Now, Steam has pushed that record even further. According to the latest live data, Steam has now crossed an even bigger milestone. On January 11, 2026, the platform reached a new all-time peak of 42,042,778 concurrent users. This makes it the highest number of players ever logged into Steam at once, and it shows that user activity continues to climb even outside of major release windows.
Steam has also shown solid year-to-year growth when looking at its player numbers over time. In January 2023, Steam crossed 33 million concurrent users for the first time. By March 2024, that number had increased to 36 million. Since then, the platform has continued to grow at a steady pace, eventually breaking past 40 million and now crossing the 42 million mark.
Steam’s dominance in the PC gaming market also helps explain these numbers. The platform is currently estimated to hold around 75% of the PC digital distribution market in the United States and about 74% globally. With such a large share of the market, it remains the main hub for PC gamers around the world.