Something Just Happened on Steam That’s Never Happened Before

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Something Just Happened on Steam That's Never Happened Before

Key Takeaways

  • More Steam users are currently using Simplified Chinese over English for the first time in the platform’s history.
  • Options for Chinese Steam users include using the more limited Steam China or accessing the international version with a VPN.
  • Black Myth: Wukong’s popularity may have influenced the surge in Simplified Chinese usage.

As someone who has been a dedicated Steam user for over a decade, I must admit, I never thought I would witness such a seismic shift in the platform’s linguistic landscape. For the first time ever, Simplified Chinese has surpassed English as the most commonly used language on Steam! This is not just a milestone for Steam, but a testament to the growing influence of Asian gaming markets, particularly China.

For the very first time, gamers on the global PC gaming platform Steam, established in 2003, are predominantly playing games in Simplified Chinese rather than English. Due to its immense popularity across many nations, including China, Steam is recognized as the largest PC gaming platform worldwide.

In China, Steam has faced challenges due to its complex past and stringent gaming regulations. Although PC gaming on Steam has been well-received for some time, it was temporarily banned within the country in 2021 due to industry restrictions. Currently, Chinese gamers have limited choices: they can use the local version of Steam China, which is allowed but offers a limited game selection, or they can access the international version using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Consequently, despite China’s enormous population of over 1.42 billion people, these legal hurdles currently restrict the popularity of Steam in the country.

For the first time on Steam’s gaming platform, it has been observed that a larger number of users prefer Simplified Chinese over English. As per recent statistics from Steam, approximately 35.03% of gamers are using Simplified Chinese, compared to 31.17% who use English. Other popular languages among the gaming community include Russian (8.49%), Spanish (Spain) (3.86%), and Portuguese (Brazil) (3.43%). Some gamers speculate that this shift might be due to the launch of the game Black Myth: Wukong.

Steam Has More People Using Chinese Instead of English for the First Time

It’s not shocking to see other numbers being impacted given the success of Black Myth: Wukong. Created by Chinese studio Game Science, this game has sold more than 10 million copies in just three days, making it one of the most highly-anticipated games of 2024.

The action-adventure game, Black Myth: Wukong, has seen massive success in China, largely due to its strong connection with the classic Chinese tale, Journey to the West. In fact, during the game’s launch, traffic on Steam China grew by a staggering 50%.

In the previous year, a poll centered on gaming hardware preferences reported that approximately half of all Steam PC gamers preferred Simplified Chinese as their language setting. At that point, this finding was met with skepticism since Valve, the company behind Steam, had historically struggled to accurately gather such data, which was perceived as less reliable compared to more recent reports.

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2024-09-03 00:23