This month, Sony announced that it would cease PlayStation disc production from 2028. Some proponents of physical editions are now asking: "why do we need consoles?" if everything will be digital, like on PC.
Against this backdrop, analysts from GameDiscoverCo drew attention to statistics. According to calculations, Steam may significantly surpass PlayStation in the number of active users.
Valve does not often disclose such metrics, so in the case of Steam, a non-trivial approach was used to count the active audience.
NobodyInteresting noted that thanks to the "Digital Services Act" in the European Union, a special notification is available stating that in the second half of 2025, Steam had an average of 31.1 million active monthly users in the EU.
NobodyInteresting then examined Steam's "bandwidth" statistics (global traffic data) – in which the combined share of Western and Eastern Europe accounted for 19.2% of global traffic. If countries not in the EU are excluded, the share remains 15.7%.
Thus, 15.7% is "equivalent" to 31.3 million active users per month. If the data is extrapolated, it turns out that Steam had approximately 198 million active monthly users in the second half of 2025.
For comparison, Sony reported 125 million active PlayStation Network users per month. This number includes PS4, PS5, and some Steam users, as the company has integrated its services on PC as well.