Steam sales reportedly topped $11 billion during H1 2026 due to shifting trends — staggering growth driven by influx of Chinese players and booming legacy catalogues

According to new research published by Alinea Analytics, Valve has grossed an estimated 11.1 billion dollars throughout the first half of 2026. If correct, the estimates would make it Valve's most profitable half-year on record, as digital storefronts become the norm throughout the games industry. Earlier this month, Sony announced that it would stop making new physical PlayStation discs by 2028, instead turning its efforts digital.

According to a Substack post from research firm Alinea Analytics, games sold on the platform accumulated $11.1 billion in revenue in the first six months of this year, which is a 14.5% jump compared to the first six months of 2025. Even more impressively, though, Steam's H1 2026 has posted 8% higher numbers than H2 2025, which includes the lucrative holiday season where most of the biggest sales happen. The store generated "only" $10.3 billion in revenue during the latter half of 2025.

Steam has been on a consistent incline for 10 years, boasting record revenue numbers almost every successive year. Even if it hits a slump, the data shows Valve has never had two bad years in a row; a recession is always followed by a boom. Alinea says five main factors contribute to the storefront's growth: a surge in Chinese players, higher prices, viral co-op hits, and smarter back-catalogue categories from big publishers.

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Almost 10 years ago, in the first half of 2017, the platform made a little less than $2.5 billion, which means the H1 2026 revenue is 4.7 times higher, almost quintupling in a decade. Moreover, it's remarkable to believe that Steam also made more in the first six months of this year than it did in the entirety of 2020, when most of us were confined to our homes, free from responsibilities, and with a lot of time on our hands.

Alinea lists Forza Horizon 6, Resident Evil Requiem, and Crimson Desert as the top three games for Steam's explosive H1 2026 numbers — all of them made almost $200 million. Games from prior years also played a bigger role this time since 2026 releases only accounted for 21% of the $11.1 billion, while 27% of H1 2025's revenue came from 2025 launches; 29% of H1 2024's revenue was accumulated from 2024 releases.

Amidst all the data, a clear trend is forming. People are looking back in their libraries and appreciating older games more than ever before, while new releases still make an impact if they're universally acclaimed. With the highly anticipated GTA VI coming soon (with no current PC release date), it'll be interesting to see how these numbers change. Now, if only Valve could make more Steam Machines to play all those older games everyone seems to be playing.

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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.

36 Comments Comment from the forums

LordVile

And people still argue they’re not a monopoly and their 30% cut isn’t insane
Reply
ezst036

LordVile said:
And people still argue they’re not a monopoly and their 30% cut isn’t insane
Calling them a monopoly is to abuse and torture the word beyond all recognition.

LordVile said:
Join the Ecosystem. One of us, One of Us…
https://freepngimg.com/thumb/apple/58821-color-logo-brand-apple-rainbow-free-hd-image.png
Apple charges 30%.

https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=dadukodv (March 12, 2026)

Currently, the rate is 30%.
That's changing for China only AFAIK, to 25%. For the rest of us? 30.
Reply
LordVile

ezst036 said:
Calling them a monopoly is to abuse and torture the word beyond all recognition.
They are by legal definition a monopoly, they are actually over 50% more than they’d need to be classed as a working monopoly and well over the 70% they’d need to be classed as dominating a market.

ezst036 said:
Apple charges 30%.

https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=dadukodv (March 12, 2026)

That's changing for China only AFAIK, to 25%. For the rest of us? 30.
Apple also owns the platform, hardware and software and supports all of that for free. The 30% is justified becaure of the extra work they do. Steam is just a storefront yet dictates the prices for the entire platform due to its abuse of the monopoly it created and enforces.

Also Apple has a 31% market share in phones
Reply
bigdragon

Article said:
If correct, the estimates would make it Valve's most profitable half-year on record, as digital storefronts become the norm throughout the games industry. Earlier this month, Sony announced that it would stop making new physical PlayStation discs by 2028, instead turning its efforts digital.
I really wish news outlets would stop comparing Sony's ecosystem to Valve's store. Anything I download from Sony is stuck on the Playstation console. I can't modify, backup, or transfer the files easily. Sony can come in and delete those files whenever they want. This is different from Steam where I have access to the game files and can change them in any way that I want including defeating DRM if necessary and creating copies that Valve cannot touch.

LordVile said:
And people still argue they’re not a monopoly and their 30% cut isn’t insane
There is nothing stopping someone from creating a competing storefront. Epic could turn their game store into a Steam competitor if they wanted to. Them delivering a basic storefront doesn't indicate Valve is being anti-competitive -- it just means Epic didn't bother to implement the workshop, community, reviews, sales events, and other things that make Steam successful.
Reply
LordVile

bigdragon said:
I really wish news outlets would stop comparing Sony's ecosystem to Valve's store. Anything I download from Sony is stuck on the Playstation console. I can't modify, backup, or transfer the files easily. Sony can come in and delete those files whenever they want. This is different from Steam where I have access to the game files and can change them in any way that I want including defeating DRM if necessary and creating copies that Valve cannot touch.

There is nothing stopping someone from creating a competing storefront. Epic could turn their game store into a Steam competitor if they wanted to. Them delivering a basic storefront doesn't indicate Valve is being anti-competitive -- it just means Epic didn't bother to implement the workshop, community, reviews, sales events, and other things that make Steam successful.
Aside from valves monopoly and anti competitive prices. Epic and Microsoft both charge 12% on PC, 0% in epics case for the first million, however if you want to list on steam, where over 80% of the market is, you cannot prove a game cheaper elsewhere outside of short sales.

Effectively valve abuses its monopoly to make sure no one can undercut them and if you can’t get a game cheaper elsewhere you’re not likely to split your library. They also don’t integrate well with other libraries unlike the Xbox app for example which listed all of your games on all platforms in its library automatically if you want it to.
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Blastomonas

Saying that someone can simply create a competing store front is a little disingenuous. Valve has a huge foothold in the market and has become the standard like Microsoft Windows and Google Chrome in their respective markets.

Im pretty sure that they have been accused of anti competitive behaviour over the years.
Reply
TerryLaze

LordVile said:
Aside from valves monopoly and anti competitive prices. Epic and Microsoft both charge 12% on PC, 0% in epics case for the first million, however if you want to list on steam, where over 80% of the market is, you cannot prove a game cheaper elsewhere outside of short sales.
Wait MS and EPIC?!?! How are there competing companies if valve is a monopoly???
Also how is it anti-competitive for valve to ask for double what their competition asks for?!?! This is PRO competition since it gives MS and EPIC a fighting chance, if valve would adjust their prices down constantly to MS and EPIC levels, or even below that, that would be anti competitive because then they would stand no chance at all.

Blastomonas said:
Saying that someone can simply create a competing store front is a little disingenuous. Valve has a huge foothold in the market and has become the standard like Microsoft Windows and Google Chrome in their respective markets.

Im pretty sure that they have been accused of anti competitive behaviour over the years.
As above, and also as you yourself are stating, MS has all the money in the world and epic also has tons of money, sure not just anybody can make a store, but MS basically ships their store with every single copy of their OS and that is on like what? 80-90% of PCs?
It's crazy to think that valve is a monopoly if 80% + of PCs come with MS store already pre installed but you have to make a choice to download steam.
Reply
Blastomonas

I take your point about MS, but a monopoly is a monopoly regardless of how it happened. Google search and browser are examples of this.

They are in a position to dictate the terms and as people have become heavily invested in them over the years they unlikely to move to another store because of it.
Reply
LordVile

TerryLaze said:
Wait MS and EPIC?!?! How are there competing companies if valve is a monopoly???
Because they aren’t? They are part of a massive group that has about 15% market share between them.

TerryLaze said:
Also how is it anti-competitive for valve to ask for double what their competition asks for?!?! This is PRO competition since it gives MS and EPIC a fighting chance, if valve would adjust their prices down constantly to MS and EPIC levels, or even below that, that would be anti competitive because then they would stand no chance at all.
Because valve insert terms so games cannot be listed for less elsewhere meaning they cannot be undercut and maintain the monopoly. Why would you move to the EGS when the games cost the same and your library is on steam? And your EGS library doesn’t integrate with the steam launcher because valve make you add a glorified shortcut for every game that frequently breaks because they want to kick you into the steam store.

TerryLaze said:
As above, and also as you yourself are stating, MS has all the money in the world and epic also has tons of money, sure not just anybody can make a store, but MS basically ships their store with every single copy of their OS and that is on like what? 80-90% of PCs?
It's crazy to think that valve is a monopoly if 80% + of PCs come with MS store already pre installed but you have to make a choice to download steam.
I don’t think you’re understanding basically anything about the issues here and have an unhealthy parasocial relationship with Gabe.
Reply
bigdragon

LordVile said:
Because valve insert terms so games cannot be listed for less elsewhere meaning they cannot be undercut and maintain the monopoly. Why would you move to the EGS when the games cost the same and your library is on steam? And your EGS library doesn’t integrate with the steam launcher because valve make you add a glorified shortcut for every game that frequently breaks because they want to kick you into the steam store.
Correct me if I'm wrong -- the requirement to not undercut a Steam listing only applied to storefronts selling Steam keys (that means games that are redeemable on Steam). Games that sold Epic keys, PSN credentials, or Microsoft entitlements did not need to adhere to the requirement since they did not redeem onto Steam. The Steam key detail commonly gets omitted to make Valve look anti-competitive. If it is proven that Valve exercised this control over games listed on Steam and listed elsewhere in totally separate ecosystems unrelated to Steam, then this would be scummy behavior on the part of Valve at the minimum.

Personally, I'd like to see Epic actually try to compete with Valve. I'd like to see the EGS turn into a fully-featured Steam rival. Epic hasn't spent the money to do so yet. Microsoft kind of tried with XBox on Windows and Games for Windows Live, but their subscription greed permanently kneecapped their ambitions. I primarily buy my games on Steam and GOG due to the lack of trustworthy alternatives. The size and value of my Steam library is concerning because single vendor lock-in is dangerous and usually abused by companies.
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