Valve rarely shares updated figures for Steam’s monthly active users, making it difficult to compare the PC platform directly with consoles. However, industry analysts often use publicly available data to estimate Steam’s size, and a new report suggests the platform has now grown far beyond its biggest console rivals.

According to GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless, Steam is now estimated to have more than 200 million monthly active users. If that estimate is close to reality, it would make Steam much larger than PlayStation, which officially reported 125 million monthly active users as of March 2026.

How is the data estimated?

Since Valve no longer publishes regular MAU figures, the estimate is based on publicly available information rather than official numbers. One method starts with Steam’s Digital Services Act report, which stated that the platform averaged 31.1 million monthly active users across the European Union during the second half of 2025.

Carless then compared that figure with Steam’s public bandwidth distribution data to estimate how much of Steam’s total audience comes from Europe. Using that information, he calculated that Steam likely had around 198 million monthly active users during the second half of 2025. Factoring in continued growth since then, the platform may now have crossed the 200 million mark.

A second estimate looks at Steam’s steady increase in concurrent users over the past few years. Valve previously reported 132 million monthly active users in 2021, and the platform’s peak concurrent player count has continued to climb year after year. Applying a similar growth rate to those figures produces another estimate of roughly 210 million monthly active users, closely matching the first calculation. While neither method provides an official number, both arrive at a similar result, making the estimate appear reasonably believable.

If Steam is indeed sitting above 200 million monthly active users today, it has experienced enormous growth in just five years. Back in 2021, the platform officially had 132 million monthly active users. That means Steam may have added around 70 million more users during that period. At the end of last year, Steam also broke its record for annual game releases.

It’s important to remember that these figures are still estimates rather than confirmed data from Valve. Even so, they paint a picture of Steam’s continued growth and show just how dominant the platform has become in the gaming market.

About the Author

Abdul Haddi

Abdul is a tech writer and Editor for PC Guide, specializing in all things tech, gaming, and hardware.