Steam is Crushing the Competitive Challenge from Epic Games Store
Steam continues to be the gaming behemoth despite competition from its most significant challenger - the Epic Games Store. | Source: Shutterstock.com
- Steam sets a new record for peak players.
- 18,801,944 players were using Steam at once.
- The last record was 18,537,490 players which was set two years ago.
Steam stat tracker Steam Database [Twitter] shows that the Valve-owned platform has set a new record for peak players. 18,801,944 were using Steam at once which is an increase of nearly 300,000 players compared to the record of 18,537,490, set two years ago.
There are fewer players in a game than two years ago. The data platform says that there were around 5.8 million people in a game this time compared to around seven million players last time.
The new record is likely because of the Lunar New Year. The day of the new peak player was on the last day of the Lunar New Year celebration in China. Steam has also been holding a Lunar New Year game sale.
Chinese is the most popular language on Steam [PC Gamer] and it has millions of Chinese users. These players, who are off school and work, seem to have been spending their time playing PC games all day.
Fewer players may be in a game but Valve’s gaming giant will be glad that it is winning the fight against the Epic Games Store. Epic Games launched its store because of the huge amount of money the gaming platform takes from each sale. Epic Games has tried to gain more ground by offering more free games but it seems like that hasn’t stopped Steam from establishing itself as the world’s biggest game distribution platform.
If China is the reason why Steam is doing so well, then Epic Games could use Tencent to help it grow in the region. Tencent owns 40% of Epic Games and the Epic Games Store has been available in China since May 2019. This means that there is room for the two to work together and Epic Games may need help if Steam keeps growing like this.
