SteamDB: Steam annual ‘summer dip’ is twice as big this time dit

According to statistics website SteamDB, the annual decline in active users of Steam this summer is twice as great as last year, for example. Where in 2017 there were nine percent fewer active users, this is now 18 percent.

SteamSpy creator Sergey Galyonkin points to the decline on Twitter. SteamDB’s chart shows a peak of 18.5 million active users in January this year and a maximum user base of just over 15 million at this point in the year.

The downturn itself is not difficult to explain: in the summer months many people go on holiday and even if they do not go on holiday, enjoying summer weather offers an attractive alternative to gaming. “It’s not happening to this extent, though,” he said in conversations below the tweet. Furthermore, the numbers of users who actually play have fallen from 38 to 31 percent, a decrease of also 19 percent. The peak time of the year for Steam is usually in January.

Game developers responding to the tweet speculate that this is due to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, a game that has exploded in popularity in the past year. A large increase in players allows an equally large decrease in turn. Others suspect that the massive popularity of Fortnite: Battle Royale, which can’t be found on Steam, is responsible for the amplified downturn.