Steam keeps on winning

Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
(Image credit: Valve software)

Epic Games remains steadfast in its quest to drive down game store fees and build its "metaverse" vision, but the might of its Fortnite, Unreal Engine, and Epic Games Store operation wavered this year. Epic laid off over 800 employees in September, and pawned off beloved music marketplace Bandcamp after acquiring it only a year ago. Steam, meanwhile, kept posting wins.

Last year, I pointed out how many big publishers came crawlin' back to Steam after trying their own things: EA, Activision, Microsoft. This year, for the first time ever, two Blizzard games released on Steam: Overwatch and Diablo 4.

That's a big deal! Blizzard's Battle.net has been its own PC gaming fiefdom since before Steam, which has always earned it a pass even among those who otherwise reject any non-Steam launcher. But here we are—never thought I'd see the day.

Steam also got 2023's award winningest game, Baldur's Gate 3, and alongside GOG had it exclusively for a month before the PS5 release (not counting its years in early access). It also housed Starfield and most other heavily marketed PC releases this year, and at the same time continues to be the primary vehicle by which relatively unknown new games become phenomena. Lethal Company was a big one this year, and we loved Battlebit Remastered and Pizza Tower. It's the best way for us to get games from small developers in China, too: The Wandering Sword earned some buzz this year, for example.

Valve's VR efforts have cooled—the all-in-one Meta Quest 3 is the headset to get right now—but the Steam Deck has been a great success by all appearances. This year saw the release of a new OLED version, and people are literally inhaling the things. (And if Valve does still see potential in VR, it could perhaps combine its Steam Deck R&D with its VR headset R&D to make its own standalone goggles one day.) The Steam Deck has even made Steam better for desktop users, with continued controller support improvements and the new overlay.

Epic had some big wins of its own: Alan Wake 2, which Epic funded and published, was a critical hit, and I'm thankful that someone's keeping Remedy making games (Epic's deal with them includes another project, too). Fortnite's throwback season was a huge success, and it just got a surprisingly big Lego survival mode, as well as a fun racing mode from the Rocket League developers. Epic also got to conclude the year with a big legal victory over Google.

Alan Wake 2 was one of the year's best games, and one of the few Steam is without. (Image credit: Remedy)

But a few years after Epic posed its ultimatum to the world's digital game stores—lower your fees and allow third-party payment processing or no Fortnite for you, in short—Steam appears to be as strong as ever, while the Epic Games Store remains somewhat of a nuisance. 

I can get behind Epic's aversion to algorithmic recommendations and preference for keeping its store feature-light, but given those things, you'd hope the software would feel light, too. Instead, it takes longer to launch the Epic Games Store on my PC than Steam, and it isn't nicer to use. The library should frankly just copy Steam's format with a sidebar and categories—it's better.

After a burst of energy at the start of the decade that seemed to foretell a new era of PC game distribution, things have settled into a status quo that looks a lot like the old one. Cloud streaming hasn't taken off, GOG is still waving the DRM-free banner, and itch.io remains a valuable kitchen sink of indie and experimental games.

GTA 6 trailer

What PC stores will GTA 6 come to first? It's not a sure thing that it'll be Steam. (Image credit: Rockstar Games)

PC Game Pass is now the biggest wild card. For the moment, Microsoft's subscription service is an add-on to the digital distribution model we're used to, not a Netflix-like revolution. At least one big exec, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick, hasn't been convinced that subscriptions are the future. But it is certainly notable that the proud new owner of Activision Blizzard, and many other major developers, is pushing so hard to make the subscription thing happen. 

Speaking of Rockstar parent Take-Two, another thing hasn't changed: Grand Theft Auto 6 was announced for consoles with no mention of a PC version. It will surely come to PC sometime after its 2025 console release, but which store or stores it hits first is a small question mark. Rockstar very briefly made Red Dead Redemption 2 exclusive to its store and the Epic Games Store when it came to PC, so it isn't isn't a given that one of the biggest games of the decade will come to Steam first.

That's probably a late 2025 or 2026 problem, though. For now, for better or worse, Steam remains securely at the center of PC gaming. 

Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

Read more
Epic Games logo behind the Epic Games Store
Epic gave away nearly 600 million games in 2024, and it's 'not slowing down' for 2025
A space pilot in their cockpit in Starfield.
Starfield is surprisingly absent from Steam's 2024 bestsellers list despite taking a top spot in 2023
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
We learned just how small Valve really is this year, but also how good it is at raking in the cash: It's making more money per employee than Apple
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
Amazon thought it could compete with Steam because it was so much larger than Valve, but Prime Gaming's former VP admits that 'gamers already had the solution to their problems'
Hades
The best games on Steam in 2025
Steam logo
Only 15% of all Steam users' time was spent playing games released in 2024
Latest in Platforms
Screenshot of Children of Clay showing a mysterious clay model
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 10, 2025)
discord
Brace yourself for Discord to get worse: Reports swirl that the company is in talks with bankers about opening itself up to shareholders
The Spy from Team Fortress 2 holds up a folder with an accusatory expression.
Steam users react ecstatically to update that lets them access their heaving game notes via the web, also it fixes Monster Hunter Wilds video recording
HasanAbi
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker suspended after saying Republicans would 'kill Rick Scott' if they really cared about Medicare fraud
Screenshot from Faceminer showing a PC desktop with several windows open
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 3, 2025)
PORTSMOUTH, UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 20: A man smokes a cigarette while he looks at a smart phone screen on October 20, 2024 in Portsmouth, England. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Meta says sorry for turning Instagram into a horror show of violence, gore, dead bodies, and other graphic content that 'should not have been recommended'
Latest in Features
Honey B Lovely
The state of Final Fantasy 14 in 2025: It's in a weird spot, huh?
Monster Hunter Wilds palico
One of the biggest victories of Monster Hunter Wilds' streamlining is I don't have to deal with those awful gimmick fights anymore
A vampire with a dark castle and swarms of bats in the background.
We need to decide on a genre name for Vampire Survivors-like games before a really terrible one sticks
Olivia, Alma and a palico
I wish Monster Hunter Wilds wasn't so afraid of letting me play Monster Hunter
SteelSeries QcK Performance mouse pads overlapping on a desk
The SteelSeries QcK Performance series has reignited my excitement over the simple pleasure of a quality mouse pad… and trying to click skulls with pinpoint accuracy
OneXPlayer 2 pro on a table
I never thought a handheld PC bloated with Windows could replace my Steam Deck, but after gaming on an old OneXPlayer 2 Pro I can see now I judged it too harshly