72% of game developers think Steam is a monopoly. However, they have one good reason to keep using it

It's been over 20 years since the launch of Steam, and during this time, Valve's platform has dominated the digital distribution of PC games. Even though there are still competitors out there like Epic Games Store and GOG.com, most developers see Steam as a monopoly. However, they do not intend to abandon it for a simple reason.

Steam as a monopoly?

In May this year, an independent company called Atomik Research did a study called "The State of PC Game Distribution." It included 306 executives from the gaming industry in the UK and the United States.

According to the results, 72% of respondents believe that Steam currently has a monopoly on the PC gaming market. Even so, there's a solid reason to keep using it – it brings in over 75% of their total revenue.

However, it was noted that game creators have also started using other platforms like Epic Games Store or the Xbox store. Almost half of the respondents (48%) make their titles available on both platforms. Significantly fewer—only 10%—used GOG, and just 8% itch.io. The result of the latest platform isn't really surprising since it's aimed at indie devs.

80% of the surveyed developers plan to use sales channels other than Steam within the next five years. What's interesting, only 32% of them release some of their games on physical media, which just goes to show how digital distribution has really taken over.

Steam is immensely popular on PC for a reason—the platform is known for its very user-friendly approach to players. Meanwhile, while major developers make a fortune from it, many smaller creators can't even earn 100 dollars.

• Steam
• gaming industry
• surveys and research
• developers
• digital distribution