Who Owns Steam?

Who owns Valve?
Valve Corporation is privately owned by its employees and founder Gabe Newell. Newell, who co-founded the company in 1996 after 13 years at Microsoft, holds the majority stake. The company has no external investors, has never raised venture capital, and has never filed for an IPO. Valve has declined acquisition offers from multiple companies, including reported offers from Microsoft and Electronic Arts.

What is Steam?
Steam is Valve's digital distribution platform for PC games, launched in 2003. It is the dominant PC game marketplace, hosting tens of thousands of games and reaching 42 million peak concurrent users in 2025. Steam generated an estimated $20 billion in gross revenue in 2025 and $11.1 billion in the first half of 2026. Valve takes a 30 percent commission on most game sales, with reduced rates of 25 percent and 20 percent for games earning more than $10 million and $50 million, respectively.

Is Valve publicly traded?
No. Valve is a private company and has never been publicly traded. Gabe Newell has stated that Valve has no plans to go public. The company's private status allows it to make long-term decisions without quarterly earnings pressure or shareholder obligations.

How many employees does Valve have?
Valve employs approximately 350 people. This is remarkably small for a company generating an estimated $6 to $8 billion in annual revenue. Valve's flat organizational structure, with no traditional managers or departments, contributes to its lean headcount.

What is the Steam Deck?
The Steam Deck is a portable gaming PC released by Valve in February 2022. It runs SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system that uses Proton, a compatibility layer allowing Windows games to run on Linux. The Steam Deck sold an estimated 4 million units in its first three years. In May 2026, Valve raised prices to $789 to $949 due to component shortages, resulting in an estimated 80 percent decline in weekly unit sales.

What new hardware is Valve releasing in 2026?
Valve is shipping three new hardware products in 2026: the Steam Machine (a living room gaming PC), the Steam Frame (a VR headset), and the Steam Controller 2 (a game controller priced at $99, launched May 4, 2026). All three were initially planned for early 2026 but were delayed by a global RAM shortage affecting electronics manufacturing.

How much revenue does Steam generate?
Steam generated an estimated $20 billion in gross revenue in 2025, according to market analyst Alinea Analytics. In the first half of 2026, Steam generated $11.1 billion, a 14.5 percent increase over the same period in 2025. These figures represent gross transaction volume on the platform, not Valve's net revenue, which is lower after paying developers their share.

Does Valve make games anymore?
Valve continues to develop games, though its release pace is slower than in its early years. Recent releases include Half-Life: Alyx (2020), a VR-exclusive title, and Counter-Strike 2 (2023), a major update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Valve's game development output is smaller relative to its platform and hardware businesses, which generate the majority of the company's revenue.