In the last holiday season, one gaming platform has emerged at the top of them all. The PC gaming platform, although not as big as the console crowd has a steady and ever loyal cult following. Testament to this is the record breaking sales record of Steam, Valve's own response to PlayStation Now and Xbox Live.
Steam is an online-based digital distribution service developed and currently maintained by Valve. Steam's primary service includes providing downloadable game and other software to its clientele.
With the recent cyber-attack that brought down the servers of PlayStation and Xbox, a problem that brought dismay to its user especially during the holiday, Valve's Steam network stand tall and even set a record breaking 8.4 million user simultaneously online during the New Year's day. Steam went on to break its existing record the day after by clocking in 8.5 million users, all concurrently logged into their respective Steam accounts.
Valve's summer and holiday sale is a much awaited event among the PC gaming community. Thousands of video game titles are being offered, sometime with up to 80 percent discount. This discount scheme changes every 12 to 24 hours, a strategy Valve has created in order to keep its customers coming back, a strategy that most likely contributed to Valve's simultaneous online records
Based on the official statistics that Valve has released, DOTA 2 is the most popular game among its rosters, garnering more than 880,000 players at a given time. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive comes in second place with 383,000 players online at its peak. Team Fortress quietly sits on the fourth spot with 92,600 players. DOTA 2 and Team Fortress 2 were all developed by Valve and are currently offered as a free-to-play game.
On a statement release last Sept, Valve announced that Steam has more than 100 million active accounts.
