A new survey reveals 72% of developers view Steam as a PC gaming monopoly, with most studios dependent on the platform for survival.
Steam’s grip on PC gaming has become so tight that three-quarters of game developers now describe it as a monopoly, according to a recent survey of over 300 executives from major US and UK studios. The numbers tell a stark story: 88% of respondents said at least three-quarters of their revenue flows through Valve’s platform, while 37% reported that Steam accounts for 90% of their total earnings. For many studios, the question is no longer whether Steam dominates the market, but whether they can afford to leave it.
Also of note in that Rokky’s 2025 study? 72% of respondents described Steam as effectively a monopoly, and 53% were uneasy about relying on a single platform for sales. The toplines are published on the report’s landing page.
These figures land against a market that keeps concentrating attention. Steam set an all-time concurrent-user peak of 41,666,455 on October 12, 2025, a reminder that library gravity and habit intensify with scale. Competing stores can undercut fees or sweeten promotions, but players keep opening the client where their friends, updates, and backlogs live.
SteamDB
The community’s response to these findings reveals a nuanced picture. Many acknowledge Steam’s overwhelming market position while simultaneously praising the platform for solving a fundamental problem that rivals have failed to address. Observers highlight Steam’s user-friendly features, seamless library management, and reliable download infrastructure as reasons why alternatives struggle to gain traction.
Basically, the platform is popular for a reason. The sentiment suggests that Steam’s dominance stems not just from market power, but from genuine user preference and superior execution.
The reality is that Steam doesn’t technically meet the legal definition of a monopoly, yet it might seem like one for modern game devs. It doesn’t pay to ignore it, players prefer it, and competitors can’t seem to dislodge it. Whether this represents healthy market dominance or a troubling concentration of power remains one of gaming’s most pressing questions.
The story behind the data: Studios in the Rokky study are already signaling that tension. Dominance can be comfortable for buyers and brittle for sellers. The numbers show a platform that works, and a dependency that bites when it moves. Build the spreadsheet. Know your HHI. Seed at least one second channel you can scale on demand. Today’s record user peak shows where the audience is. Your risk model should show how you keep shipping if tomorrow looks different.
We made a spreadsheet to help with this. The template uses the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and concentration ratios. These help game developers calculate just how much they rely on Steam for their releases. You can access it at Spreadsheet Point.