Steam's $15 Billion Year - and Its Biggest New Earner Is an Xbox Game

Fifteen billion dollars. That's roughly what Steam has generated so far in 2026, according to new estimates from Alinea Analytics reported by Eurogamer - and the year still has almost four months left. The analysis says that figure represents Valve's take from selling games, DLC and software on its platform.

The detail that jumped out at me, though, isn't the headline number. It's the name at the top of the new-release chart: Forza Horizon 6, with an estimated $210.5 million in revenue. Microsoft's own flagship racer is the biggest thing to hit Valve's store this year. The console war logic we grew up with - exclusives as fortress walls - is officially a museum piece. Microsoft now happily hands Valve a cut of its biggest franchise, because that's where the players are.

Where the players are is exactly the point

For PC players in our region, Steam isn't just the biggest store - in practice it's the only one that matters. Epic tried to buy its way in with free games, GOG has its loyal niche, but when a friend here says "I bought it," nobody asks where. And that dominance cuts both ways.

The good part we all know: euro regional pricing, seasonal sales that actually move prices, a library that follows you to any PC or a Steam Deck. The part we talk about less: every one of those fifteen billion dollars came from purchases that can never be resold, lent to a friend or passed on. A console player can still trade a disc locally when they're done with a game. A Steam library is a one-way street - money goes in, nothing comes back out.

And Valve barely has to make games anymore. It runs the toll booth on virtually all of PC gaming and collects its percentage on nearly everything that passes through. That's not a scandal - it built the road, and it built it well. But when one company sits this comfortably, there's no competitive pressure pushing prices down for us, and the cut Valve takes is baked into what every developer charges.

I'm not pretending I'll boycott anything. Come the autumn sale I'll be there with my wishlist like everyone else, and that's precisely how you get to fifteen billion in nine months. It's just worth being honest about the deal: convenience in, ownership out. Judging by these numbers, most of us signed it a long time ago.

Image: Brian Wong / CC BY-SA 2.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaming_PC-Setup_-_Astaroth-_The_Completed_System.jpg