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Like every year, Valve publishes its Steam 2020 Year in Review game growth report and within it, we have found some surprising numbers, especially related to PC games, as playing time increased by 50% compared to with last year. Additionally, each month, nearly 2.6 million people also brought one of their favorite games to Steam for the first time.
As 2020 was full of stress and disappointment, many people relied on games to escape reality, which was becoming disastrous with each passing day. Following the statistics, it is reported that more than half of Americans were busy playing during the year of the pandemic and that is exactly why Steam numbers show that PC gaming is thriving to new heights.
It is important to note here that the Steam report only includes numbers related to PCs and therefore does not include figures related to more popular games like Fortnite due to their availability in rival PC stores.
Along with the overtime invested and the number of newcomers joining the platform, the report also shows the fact that there was a 21.4 percent increase in the number of games sold through the platform and there were almost 24.8 million. of people playing games at the same time is a new record that was achieved for the second time in 2020.
Much of the credit for these huge numbers also goes to the developers who seized the opportunity and introduced games like Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx. The gaming community is already looking forward to the game finally giving a much-needed boost to VR gaming in the coming year.
The demand for VR also grew as 1.7 million people started using Steam’s VR interface for the first time, mainly due to new headsets that received rave reviews like the Oculus Quest 2.
Valve also reported that there was a 71 percent increase in VR sales, with Alyx at the top due to 39 percent of sales owned by it. Game time in virtual reality also increased by 30 percent.
Additionally, PC games were ultimately played without the need for a mouse and keyboard attached to a Windows machine, as Valve noticed a 66.6 percent increase in gaming sessions that were conducted with the help of a controller.
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