en.Wedoany.com Reported - Steam platform's game sales revenue in the first half of 2026 reached $11.1 billion, driving its parent company Valve to record its highest half-year revenue ever. This figure represents a 14.5% increase compared to the same period in 2025 and an 8% increase from the second half of 2025, which already included a holiday season with numerous promotional activities and generated $10.3 billion in revenue. The data comes from research firm Alinea Analytics.
Steam has maintained growth for ten consecutive years, almost annually setting new revenue peaks. Even during downturns, data shows the platform has never underperformed for two consecutive years, with declines often followed by booms. Alinea attributes the store's growth primarily to five factors: a surge in Chinese players, rising game prices, viral cooperative games, and smarter optimization of back-end catalog management by major publishers. The last point is particularly noteworthy, involving some third-party publishers returning to Steam after setbacks with their own launcher strategies. Although companies like Activision still insert their own launchers between Steam and games such as Call of Duty, the overall situation has significantly improved.
Looking at a longer timeframe, about a decade ago in the first half of 2017, the platform's revenue was slightly below $2.5 billion. This means the first half of 2026 revenue is 4.7 times that amount, nearly quintupling over ten years. This figure even exceeds the full-year revenue of 2020, which was at the peak of pandemic lockdowns when people generally had ample time and entertainment needs.
At the game level, Forza Horizon 6, Resident Evil: Requiem, and Red Desert were listed as the three breakout products on Steam in the first half of 2026, each generating nearly $200 million in revenue. More notably, older games released in previous years played a larger role this period—new titles released in 2026 accounted for only 21% of the total $11.1 billion revenue, a lower proportion compared to 27% in the first half of 2025 and 29% in the first half of 2024.
As players increasingly revisit and explore the value of older games in their libraries, while new titles that receive widespread acclaim can still have a significant impact, the platform's consumption structure is evolving. The highly anticipated GTA VI is on the horizon (its PC release date has not yet been announced), and how this will affect Steam's future revenue trends remains to be observed.
