Steam – Estimated Revenue of $1 Billion in 2010

Here’s some interesting numbers to mull over; Valve’s digital distribution arm, Steam, was estimated to bring in just shy of $1 billion in revenue during 2010. Steam officially doesn’t release sales figures, so these can be taken with a pinch of salt, but the numbers are impressive none-the-less. Total revenue of around $970 million is quite a feat.

The top two titles of course were Call of Duty, with Black Ops taking the No.1 position at $98.2 million – this was after just 2 months of sales. Second place goes to Modern Warfare 2 with $39.4 million. Valve’s own Left 4 Dead 2 takes third position with $36 million. The total revenue for December was an impressive $213 million, probably due to the ridiculous sales that were going on over the Christmas period. The top 10 titles for 2010 were the following:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision) – $98.2 Million USD
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision) – $39.4 Million USD
3. Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve) – $36.0 Million USD
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts) – $25.4 Million USD
5. Sid Meier’s Civilization V (2K Games) – $21.9 Million USD
6. Portal (Valve) – $20.0 Million USD
7. Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda Softworks) – $17.0 Million USD
8. Metro 2033 (THQ) – $13.4 Million USD
9. Mafia II (2K Games) – $11.9 Million USD
10. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising (THQ) – $10.8 Million USD

Notice how 7 of them are First Person Shooters?

These figures are still just estimates of course, but it does go to show that digital downloads for PC games are a formidable force for the retail sector. Certain retailers mulling over the idea of banning the sale of Steam based games in-store makes a bit more sense now. These figures are also just for Steam and do not include the likes of Direct2Drive, Impulse, Games for Windows Marketplace, etc. Digital downloads are still not the cheapest way to get games; looking over at Amazon, many games can still be had far cheaper at retail, so look around first.

FADE, Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment LLC; the source of these figures, is an independent company setup to look into the digital distribution of games over various platforms.

February 3rd, 2011 – As per the Research & Analysis division of analyst firm Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC (FADE), Valve’s PC distribution platform garnered strong sales, estimated just shy $1 billion USD through the end of the year.