While Consoles Get More Expensive, Steam Just Had Its Best Six Months Ever

Plate-forme : Steam (Valve)  |  Reporting Period: First half of 2026  |  Source : Alinea Analytics  |  Reported Revenue: $11.1 billion gross, H1; $11.6 billion running total as of mid-July

Steam generated an estimated $11.1 billion in gross revenue during the first half of 2026, according to analytics firm Alinea Analytics, marking the platform’s highest-ever half-year total. The figure represents a 14.5 percent increase over the same period in 2025 and comes as Steam’s console competitors face rising hardware prices and shrinking shipment forecasts.

Breaking Down the Record

Alinea’s Rhys Elliott, the firm’s head of market analysis, said the first half of 2026 marked Steam’s biggest six-month period on record, a figure that beats even the typically stronger second half of the year, which usually benefits from holiday and Winter Sale spending. Notably, PC Gamer’s coverage of the report noted the number already exceeds Steam’s entire revenue for 2020, a year when pandemic lockdowns drove unusually high game sales.

Alinea estimates Steam’s full-year revenue has grown from roughly $5.5 billion in 2017 to nearly $20 billion in 2025. The platform reportedly added another half-billion dollars after H1 officially closed, pushing 2026’s running total toward $11.6 billion by mid-July.

Where the Growth Is Coming From

Elliott attributes the growth to several overlapping trends. Asian markets, particularly China, have driven a significant share of new user growth. Rising AAA prices in Western markets have boosted per-title revenue, and several major publishers have returned to Steam after their own standalone launchers failed to gain traction.

• Back-catalog dominance: Only 21 percent of H1 2026 revenue came from games released this year, down from 27 percent in H1 2025 and 29 percent in H1 2024
• Top new releases by revenue: Forza Horizon 6 ($197.7 million), Resident Evil Requiem ($194.5 million, 3.4 million copies sold), Crimson Desert ($190.1 million), Slay the Spire 2, and Subnautica 2 round out the top five
• Just outside the top five: Meccha Chameleon, a viral multiplayer hit, sold roughly 15 million copies and landed in sixth place by revenue
• Market share: Steam holds an estimated 74 percent of the PC digital distribution market, against roughly 3 percent for the Epic Games Store

The Forza Horizon 6 figure is notable for a specific reason: it’s a first-party Microsoft game generating some of Steam’s strongest 2026 revenue on a third-party storefront, even as the broader Xbox hardware business continues to contract.

The Contrast With Console Hardware

Steam’s record comes as console makers face a difficult year. Sony raised PS5 prices in April, taking the disc console to $649.99 and the Pro model to $899.99. Microsoft followed with a further Xbox price increase effective August 1, pushing the Series X to $799.99 and discontinuing its 2TB model, while also confirming Call of Duty’s departure from Xbox Game Pass. Both companies cite the same cause: a global memory and storage shortage that has driven component costs up more than 250 percent, with another doubling expected by late 2027.

Industry analysts now expect console shipments to decline nearly 20 percent in 2026 as a direct result. Circana data cited alongside these price changes found May 2026 was the worst month on record for Xbox hardware sales and the weakest for PlayStation since 2000.

Résultat final

Steam’s $11.1 billion half is less about any single blockbuster and more about the platform’s growing gravitational pull. A shrinking share of revenue now comes from new releases, which suggests Steam’s real strength is its enormous back catalog and its increasingly dominant position as publishers retreat from their own storefronts. That dominance looks even sharper set against a console market currently working through its most expensive, least predictable year in recent memory.