Industry News · Platforms statistics
Steam Statistics 2026: Users, Concurrent Records, Hardware Survey and Top Games
Steam reached 42 million peak concurrent users according to Valve’s 2025 Year in Review, and 38.9 million people were online when we checked on 10 October 2026. Valve’s September 2026 Hardware Survey puts Windows on 95.03% of machines, the RTX 5070 as the most common GPU and 32 GB as the most common amount of RAM. Every figure below links to the Valve page it came from.
Key takeaways
- Steam’s peak concurrency has grown by about 3.4 million users a year for five years, from 24.8 million in 2020 to 42 million, Valve says.
- Valve has not published monthly active users since 2021 (132 million). Any current “MAU” figure you see elsewhere is an outside estimate.
- In September 2026, 32 GB overtook 16 GB as the most common RAM size (42.22%), and AMD reached 48.37% of PC CPUs, up 8.7 points in 18 months.
- Steam delivered 100 exabytes of downloads in 2025, about 274 petabytes a day, up from roughly 80 exabytes in 2024.
- Non-Valve games received an average 76% revenue share in 2025.
- Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2 and PUBG together held about 7.2% of everyone online when we checked.
Key figures
42 million
peak concurrent Steam users
Valve’s own rounded figure in its 2025 Year in Review. The exact record is not on a Valve page.
38.93 million
Steam users online at once
Valve’s Charts page, half-hour sample at 12:30 UTC on a Saturday.
95.03%
of Steam users run Windows
Windows 11 alone is 71.34%; Windows 10 is 23.61%.
RTX 5070
is the most common GPU on Steam, at 5.86%
6.15% on Valve’s PC-only video card table. It nearly doubled from 3.09% in May 2026.
32 GB
is now the most common RAM size, at 42.22% (16 GB: 37.82%)
100 exabytes
of games and updates delivered in a year
Up from about 80 EB in 2024.
76%
average revenue share paid to non-Valve games
Averaged across all non-Valve games. Steam’s standard cut steps down for high-earning titles.
1.26 million
playing Counter-Strike 2, the most played game on Steam
How many people use Steam?
Valve publishes live concurrency, the number of people signed in at the same moment, but no longer publishes monthly active users. So the honest answer to “how many people use Steam” comes in two parts. On a normal Saturday in October 2026, around 39 million people were online at once. The last monthly figure Valve released was 132 million, for 2021. Any larger monthly number in circulation, such as the often-quoted “200 million”, is an outside estimate, not a Valve statistic.[1][10]
38.93 million
Steam users online at once
Valve’s Charts page, half-hour sample at 12:30 UTC on a Saturday.
40.08 million
peak online in the last three days
The highest point in the Charts page’s rolling window (7–10 Oct). It is not the all-time record.
24.3M → 39.1M
daily low to daily high concurrent users
On 8 October the low came at 06:00 UTC and the high at 14:30 UTC, a swing of almost 15 million people.
14:30 UTC
time of the daily concurrency peak
The daily maximum fell in the 14:30 UTC sample on 7, 8 and 9 October: evening in Asia, afternoon in Europe.
| Day (UTC) | Daily high | Daily low |
|---|---|---|
| Wed 7 Oct 2026 | 38,564,158 | 24,732,877 |
| Thu 8 Oct 2026 | 39,056,641 | 24,309,603 |
| Fri 9 Oct 2026 | 39,995,303 | 25,160,845 |
| Sat 10 Oct 2026 (to 12:30) | 38,926,191 | 26,089,750 |
Half-hour samples miss the exact top between samples, so the page’s own “peak online” (40,081,390) is slightly higher.
Source: Valve — Steam Charts — Overview (users online and peak online)
The daily rhythm is the most useful thing in the live data. Steam bottoms out around 06:00 UTC, when the Americas are asleep and Asia is just waking up. It peaks around 14:30 UTC, when Asian evenings and European afternoons overlap. The gap between them is about 15 million people every day. That matters if you schedule a launch, a server maintenance window or a sale announcement.[1]
Steam growth: concurrent user records by year
Steam peak concurrent users, as stated by Valve
Source: Valve — Steam — 2020 Year in Review; Valve — Steam — 2021 Year in Review; Valve — Steam Annual Summary: 2023; Valve — Steam Year In Review 2024; Valve — Steam Year In Review 2025
42 million
peak concurrent Steam users
Valve’s own rounded figure in its 2025 Year in Review. The exact record is not on a Valve page.
~3.4 million
extra peak concurrent users per year
Valve’s average over the five years since Steam first crossed 25 million.
Nearly 2×
growth in peak concurrent users since March 2020
Steam monthly active users, as published by Valve
Source: Valve — Steam — 2018 Year in Review; Valve — Steam — 2019 Year in Review; Valve — Steam — 2020 Year in Review; Valve — Steam — 2021 Year in Review
Steam Hardware Survey: operating systems
95.03%
of Steam users run Windows
Windows 11 alone is 71.34%; Windows 10 is 23.61%.
3.05%
of Steam users run Linux (−0.85 points on the month)
1.92%
of Steam users run macOS
Windows 10 support ended for consumers in October 2025, yet almost a quarter of Steam machines still ran it eleven months later. For a developer, that is a large group to drop by requiring Windows 11. Linux dipped this month, but the September survey moved several categories sharply at once, so read single-month changes with care. See the methodology section.[4]
Most popular GPUs on Steam and VRAM
| GPU | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 | 3.09% | 3.29% | 3.62% | 3.77% | 6.15% |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 | 2.58% | 2.81% | 3.03% | 3.16% | 4.40% |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | 2.06% | 2.26% | 2.40% | 2.55% | 4.06% |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 | 3.74% | 3.65% | 3.63% | 3.60% | 3.89% |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 4.02% | 3.88% | 3.88% | 3.92% | 3.66% |
RTX 5070
is the most common GPU on Steam, at 5.86%
6.15% on Valve’s PC-only video card table. It nearly doubled from 3.09% in May 2026.
75.97%
of PC GPUs are NVIDIA (AMD 16.67%, Intel 7.01%)
16 GB
is the most common VRAM size, at 27.21%, just ahead of 8 GB (26.71%)
50.11%
of GPUs have 12 GB of VRAM or more
Our sum of Valve’s 12, 16, 20, 22, 24, 32 and 64 GB rows.
92.19%
of PC GPUs support DirectX 12
PC GPU share by manufacturer
Source: Valve — Steam Hardware & Software Survey: September 2026
The RTX 50-series took over in a single summer. In May 2026 the RTX 3060 still led this group of five cards. By September the RTX 5070, 5060 and 5060 Ti held the top three places. All three jumped in September, the same month several other categories swung, so part of that jump is likely the survey sample rather than sales. The direction since May is consistent, though.[5]
CPUs, RAM and storage: Intel vs AMD on Steam
AMD share of PC CPUs on Steam
Source: Valve — Steam Hardware & Software Survey: September 2026
51.63% / 48.37%
Intel vs AMD share of PC CPUs
+8.7 points
AMD’s gain in PC CPU share in 18 months (39.65% → 48.37%)
32 GB
is now the most common RAM size, at 42.22% (16 GB: 37.82%)
8 cores
is the most common CPU core count, at 30.06% (6 cores: 27.23%)
53.30%
of users have more than 1 TB of total storage
| Vendor | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel | 55.02% | 55.08% | 54.65% | 54.47% | 52.59% |
| AMD | 44.97% | 44.92% | 45.34% | 45.52% | 47.41% |
Source: Valve — Steam Hardware Survey — processor usage by vendor and OS
AMD gained ground in 13 of the 17 month-to-month steps in Valve’s chart, which makes it the steadiest trend in the whole survey. The remaining gap is 3.26 points; at the 18-month average pace of about half a point a month for AMD (and the same loss for Intel), it would close in roughly three to four months. RAM moved the same way: in September, 32 GB became the most common configuration for the first time, overtaking 16 GB.[4]
Screen resolution, language and VR on Steam
| Metric | Share | Change on month |
|---|---|---|
| Primary display 1920×1080 | 47.91% | −2.61 |
| Primary display 2560×1440 | 27.04% | +5.18 |
| Primary display 3840×2160 (4K) | 4.79% | −0.19 |
| Language: English | 34.20% | −4.05 |
| Language: Simplified Chinese | 31.39% | +7.42 |
| Language: Russian | 9.05% | −0.85 |
| Users with a VR headset | 1.35% | −0.14 |
Source: Valve — Steam Hardware & Software Survey: September 2026
47.91%
of primary displays are 1920×1080
2560×1440 is 27.04% and 3840×2160 (4K) is 4.79%.
34.20%
use Steam in English, against 31.39% in Simplified Chinese
Chinese rose 7.42 points in one month, a survey-sample swing rather than a trend.
1.35%
of Steam users have a VR headset connected
Meta Quest 3 is 26.90% of them; Valve’s new Steam Frame is 0.41%.
Steam Deck and Linux statistics
330 million
hours played on Steam Deck in a year (+64%)
~17,000
games rated Playable or Verified on Steam Deck
CachyOS
is the most common Linux distribution on Steam (0.55% of all users)
Just ahead of SteamOS Holo, the Steam Deck’s own OS, at 0.53%.
66.18%
of Linux Steam users have an AMD CPU
Steam Deck playtime grew 64% in 2024, to 330 million hours. Some coverage rounded this to 67%, but Valve’s own figure is 64%. The Linux numbers show how far gaming on Linux now reaches beyond the Deck: in September 2026 the most common distribution on Steam was CachyOS, a gaming-focused desktop distro, slightly ahead of the Deck’s own SteamOS. Two in three Linux Steam users run an AMD processor.[8][4][6]
Most played games on Steam right now
| Rank | Game | Players online |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Counter-Strike 2 | 1,262,779 |
| 2 | Dota 2 | 899,612 |
| 3 | PUBG: Battlegrounds | 642,710 |
| 4 | AION 2 | 323,111 |
| 5 | Apex Legends | 202,260 |
| 6 | Bongo Cat | 172,750 |
| 7 | WARDOGS | 137,609 |
| 8 | Delta Force | 129,575 |
| 9 | FiveM | 126,904 |
| 10 | Deadlock | 123,584 |
Valve’s Web API returned slightly different counts a few minutes earlier (CS2 1,234,761), because the two refresh at different times.
Source: Valve — Steam Charts — Most Played; Valve — Steam Web API — GetNumberOfCurrentPlayers (Counter-Strike 2)
1.26 million
playing Counter-Strike 2, the most played game on Steam
~7.2%
of everyone online was playing CS2, Dota 2 or PUBG
Our calculation: their combined 2.8 million players divided by 38.9 million online.
~20,800
concurrent players needed to reach Steam’s top 100
Two of the top three games are Valve’s own, and all three are free to play or years past launch. The long tail is short: about 20,800 concurrent players was enough for 100th place. A game holding that many players at once on a Saturday afternoon (UTC) is among the most played on the platform.[2]
Steam revenue, downloads and gift cards
Data delivered by Steam per year
100 exabytes
of games and updates delivered in a year
Up from about 80 EB in 2024.
274 PB
installs and updates delivered per day, on average
76%
average revenue share paid to non-Valve games
Averaged across all non-Valve games. Steam’s standard cut steps down for high-earning titles.
200+
new releases that earned over $1 million in launch revenue (+15%)
First 30 days plus pre-purchases. More than 500 passed $250,000 (+27%).
~10×
growth in yearly new-release revenue since 2014
500+
games that grossed over $3 million in a single year — a first for Steam
+274%
Daily Deal revenue after Valve expanded the program
Median revenue per deal fell only 8%.
436,592
Steam Events posted by developers, seen 3.13 billion times
+10%
seasonal sale revenue, Steam’s biggest sale year to that point
Valve does not publish Steam’s total revenue. Its reviews describe the market through what developers earn instead. New-release revenue is ten times what it was in 2014. In 2024 more than 200 new games earned over $1 million in their first month, and the average revenue share paid to non-Valve games in 2025 was 76%.[8][7]
Steam refunds, support and sale dates
357,750
refund requests submitted to Steam Support in 24 hours
50,904
account security and recovery requests in 24 hours
14 days / 2 hours
Steam’s refund window: within 14 days of purchase and under 2 hours played
50.5 Tbps
peak Steam download bandwidth in 48 hours
38.8 Tbps when we checked. Asia peaked at 22.3 Tbps, North America at 18.9.
17 Dec – 4 Jan
Steam Winter Sale 2026 dates
Spring Sale 2027 runs 18–25 March and Summer Sale 2027 runs 24 June – 8 July.
- Winter Sale 2026: 17 December 2026 – 4 January 2027
- Spring Sale 2027: 18 – 25 March 2027
- Summer Sale 2027: 24 June – 8 July 2027
Methodology and caveats
Every figure was read by our team from a Valve page on 10 October 2026. The sources are Valve’s Charts and Most Played pages, the Steam Web API, the Steam Hardware & Software Survey (the September 2026 edition and its PC-only sub-tables), the Steam Year in Review posts for 2018–2025, the support and download statistics pages, the refund policy and the Steamworks seasonal sale calendar. Where we did arithmetic on Valve’s numbers, such as summing VRAM rows or dividing top-game players by users online, the figure says so.
Live figures (users online, players per game, bandwidth, support requests) are snapshots and change by the minute. Survey figures are monthly, and Year in Review figures are annual. Each figure on this page carries its own period, so please quote it along with the number.
- The Steam Hardware & Software Survey is an opt-in sample, not a census. Single-month swings can be large: in September 2026, Simplified Chinese rose 7.42 points and 1440p rose 5.18. Cite these as “in the September 2026 survey”, not as trends.
- Valve’s own 18-month charts include an outlier in February 2026 (NVIDIA GPUs at 84.68%, AMD at 10.61%). We left that month out of our charts.
- The all-platform overview and the PC-only sub-pages give slightly different numbers. For example, the RTX 5070 is 5.86% overall and 6.15% on PC. We say which view each figure comes from.
- Valve has not published monthly active users since 2021, and it publishes no yearly count of games released. We do not repeat third-party estimates of either.
- The often-quoted exact concurrency record of 42,042,778 does not appear on any Valve page we could find, so we use Valve’s rounded “42 million”.
How we research and correct our content is set out in our editorial policy.
Steam Statistics 2026: FAQ
How many people use Steam in 2026?
About 39 million people were online on Steam at once on Saturday 10 October 2026 (38.93 million at 12:30 UTC), and Valve says Steam has reached 42 million peak concurrent users. Valve last published monthly active users for 2021: 132 million.
What is Steam’s concurrent user record?
Valve’s 2025 Year in Review, published in March 2026, says Steam reached 42 million peak concurrent users. Peak concurrency has grown by about 3.4 million users a year for five years, up from 24.8 million in 2020.
What is the most popular GPU on Steam?
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, at 5.86% of Steam users in the September 2026 Hardware Survey (6.15% on Valve’s PC-only table), ahead of the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti. NVIDIA makes 75.97% of the GPUs in Steam PCs.
What percentage of Steam users use Linux?
3.05% in the September 2026 Steam Hardware Survey, against 95.03% on Windows and 1.92% on macOS. The most common Linux distribution was CachyOS (0.55% of all Steam users), just ahead of SteamOS on the Steam Deck (0.53%).
How much RAM do most Steam users have?
32 GB, at 42.22% of Steam users in the September 2026 survey. It overtook 16 GB (37.82%) to become the most common amount for the first time.
What is the most played game on Steam?
Counter-Strike 2, with 1,262,779 players online at about 12:55 UTC on 10 October 2026, followed by Dota 2 (899,612) and PUBG: Battlegrounds (642,710).
How much of a game’s revenue does Steam keep?
Valve says the average revenue share paid out to non-Valve games on Steam in 2025 was 76%, which means Valve kept about 24% on average across all of them.
Cite or reuse these statistics
Every figure in this report is free to reuse in articles, videos, research and AI-written content under CC BY 4.0. The one condition: credit Virtwave with a link to this page, so your readers can check the number and see when it was last updated.
https://www.virtwave.com/industry-news/steam-statistics<a href="https://www.virtwave.com/industry-news/steam-statistics">Steam Statistics 2026 (Virtwave)</a>Haddad, N. (2026). Steam Statistics 2026. Virtwave. https://www.virtwave.com/industry-news/steam-statisticsSources
- ValveFirst-partySteam Charts — Overview (users online and peak online)Accessed — store.steampowered.com/stats redirects here; we read the half-hourly series in the page data.
- ValveFirst-partySteam Charts — Most PlayedAccessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam Web API — GetNumberOfCurrentPlayers (Counter-Strike 2)Accessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam Hardware & Software Survey: September 2026Accessed — All platforms combined, with Valve’s 18-month PC charts.
- ValveFirst-partySteam Hardware Survey — PC video card usageAccessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam Hardware Survey — processor usage by vendor and OSAccessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam Year In Review 2025Accessed — Posted 6 March 2026.
- ValveFirst-partySteam Year In Review 2024Accessed — Posted 13 March 2025.
- ValveFirst-partySteam Annual Summary: 2023Accessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam — 2021 Year in ReviewAccessed — MAU, DAU and peak figures are in the post’s headline graphic.
- ValveFirst-partySteam — 2020 Year in ReviewAccessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam — 2019 Year in ReviewAccessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam — 2018 Year in ReviewAccessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam Download StatsAccessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam Support StatsAccessed
- ValveFirst-partySteam RefundsAccessed
- ValveFirst-partySteamworks Documentation — Seasonal Sales and FestsAccessed
Who compiled this report
Data & Market Research Lead, Virtwave · Built and maintains this calculator
Noor runs market research for Virtwave, tracking gift card volumes, redemption patterns and fraud trends across the 80+ countries we deliver to. She compiles our data reports from primary government sources (FTC, central banks) and the major market-research houses, and cross-checks every figure against our own transaction data before publication.
Senior Gaming Commerce Editor, Virtwave · Checks every figure before an update
Rayyan covers console and PC gaming wallets for Virtwave, with deep specialism in PlayStation Network, Xbox, Razer Gold and Steam. He has been writing about digital gaming commerce since 2020.
Virtwave sells game keys and gift cards, including Steam wallet codes. No platform or publisher paid for, reviewed or approved this report.
Update history
Published with the September 2026 Hardware Survey, live counts from 10 October 2026, and figures from Valve’s 2018–2025 Year in Review posts.