According to Valve’s yearly Steam review, the PC gaming juggernaut delivered 100 exabytes of data to its customers in 2025. That’s an increase of 20 exabytes compared to 2024, and while “20” might seem small, the “exabytes” portion is where things really get out of control.
An exabyte is equal to one quintillion (1018) bytes, a number comprised of 18 zeroes. That’s 1,000 petabytes. That’s one million terabytes. That’s one billion gigabytes. That’s one trillion megabytes. That’s … an insane number.
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I’m no mathematician, and it’s proving truly difficult to get my head around these enormous numbers. Say you’ve been buying 10TB hard drives for the past several years. Were you able to purchase 10 million of them? That’s how much storage you’d need to hold 100 exabytes.
Assuming you did get your hands on 10 million 10TB hard drives, you’d be able to comfortably store your music collection, comprised of about 12 trillion songs. I’m shaking my head in disbelief as I write this.
Valve puts an emphasis on the growth of its Steam user base as a reason for its massive data delivery expansion. The PC gaming platform hit, for the first time, 25 million concurrent users in 2020, and it has grown by about 3.4 million users each year to arrive at a peak of 42 million concurrent users in 2025.
In 2024 we delivered about 80 exabytes to customers, and in 2025 that grew to 100 exabytes. It’s hard to make sense of such a huge number, but just for fun: Steam users are averaging 274 petabytes of installs and updates per day- that’s 11.42 petabytes per hour, which is about 190,000 GB of data per minute.
Valve
As Steam has grown so spectacularly, it has increasingly come under fire for its perceived positioning as anti-competitive and greedy, not to mention pushing gambling on minors with loot boxes.
One major class-action lawsuit originating in the UK accuses Steam of using its market dominance to retain users while also rigging prices. It’s alleged that Steam’s actions limit the potential of competing platforms like Epic Games and GOG.
It’s worth pointing out that a 30% commission rate is quite standard in the industry, and Steam doesn’t exactly force you to buy games on its platform. It just happens to be the best place to do so.
It’s also worth pointing out that Steam introduced higher 75% and 80% revenue share tiers all the way back in 2018, which, as far as I know, is unmatched by any other major platforms. In 2025, this led to the average payout to developers being 76% of revenue.
Windows Central’s take on Steam’s 2025 Year in Review
Steam isn’t perfect, but it sure is a convenient way to find, compare, buy, and mod games to play solo or with friends. It’s clear from the astronomical numbers that Valve shared that I’m not alone in these opinions.
Valve being attacked from several angles is not unexpected, and some of these lawsuits do hold water. Loot boxes certainly do feel like gambling. But going after Steam for providing a generally great experience for gamers and developers seems a bit far-fetched.
Valve continues to be a private company under founder and CEO Gabe Newell, allowing it to run without pressure from investors and shareholders. What the company will look like after Newell’s departure is anyone’s guess, but I know I’m not the only one hoping it retains its core values.
I want to know what you think about Steam’s Year in Review 2025!
Did Steam’s 100-exabyte tally for data delivery in 2025 surprise you? Were you expecting it to be smaller? Larger?
I’d also like to know your opinion on Valve and its ongoing lawsuits. Do you think they’re fair? Why or why not? Please let me know in the comments section!
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