Nov 06, 2025 11:31:00

72% of game developers believe Steam has a de facto monopoly on PC gaming

Today, most PC users use the game distribution platform Steam to acquire games. In a survey of game company executives, 72% of respondents said that Steam effectively monopolizes the PC gaming market.

The State of PC Game Distribution 2025: Beyond Steam

https://rokky.com/pc-game-distribution-report-2025

72% of game developers say Steam is effectively a PC gaming monopoly | TechSpot
https://www.techspot.com/news/110133-survey-finds-72-developers-believe-steam-pc-gaming.html

In a survey of over 300 executives from major game companies in the UK and US, 72% said that 'Steam is a monopoly.' 88% also said that '75% of revenue comes from Steam.' This shows that not only gamers but also game developers are heavily dependent on Steam. Furthermore, 37% of respondents said that 90% of their revenue comes from Steam.

Steam is a large-scale PC game distribution service operated by Valve, and the number of concurrently connected players just

surpassed 41 million in October 2025. Because many users insist on purchasing games exclusively through Steam, major publishers including EA, Ubisoft, and even Microsoft have been forced to distribute their titles on Steam after unsuccessful attempts to remove them from the platform.

However, some popular titles, such as 'League of Legends' and 'Minecraft,' maintain their uniqueness by not distributing them on Steam. Additionally, stores like GOG and itch.io have taken a different path from Steam, specializing in indie games and retro titles to develop niche markets. Epic Games and Amazon Luna (formerly Prime Gaming) have attempted to compete by distributing games for free or charging lower sales fees than Steam, but they still fall far short of Steam's market share.

Epic Games v. Google lawsuit reveals that 'Epic Games Store,' which continues to distribute games for free against Steam, continues to be in the red - GIGAZINE

The survey also found that 48% of respondents distribute their titles to the Epic Games Store, 38% to e-stores like Fanatical or Humble Bundle, 30% to marketplaces like G2A or Kinguin, 10% to GOG, and 8% to itch.io.

Steam has been accused of using its monopoly position to control prices. In 2024, a lawsuit filed by game company Wolffire Games alleging that Steam's 30% commission was too high led to a class action lawsuit, alleging that Steam prevented other stores with lower sales commissions from lowering prices.

One of the issues raised in the survey regarding the current gaming industry is the growing popularity of free-to-play games such as 'Fortnite,' 'DOTA 2,' and 'Counter-Strike 2.' Approximately one-third of respondents pointed to market saturation, expressing concern that because people are flocking to free-to-play games, there aren't enough players for the thousands of new titles released on Steam each year.