Steam Is Run By Fewer Than 80 Staff, Lawsuit Docs Reveal

Steam Is Run By Fewer Than 80 Staff, Lawsuit Docs Reveal

As a long-time user and avid fan of Steam, I find it absolutely mind-blowing that such a massive platform with millions of daily users and over 10,000 annual game releases is maintained by a team of fewer than 80 people. The recent revelation from the Valve vs. Wolfire lawsuit only solidified my admiration for this incredible feat.


Valve is currently facing an antitrust lawsuit from Wolfire over Steam, which was filed in 2021. Recently, some previously redacted documents have been made public, providing intriguing insights. Among these revelations was the number of Valve employees working on Steam – a shocking disclosure indicated that under 80 employees were responsible for managing the platform in 2021. This figure is not believed to have significantly increased since then.

That Ratio, Though

As a passionate Steam user, I’m constantly amazed by the fact that this platform, managed by a team of under 80 people, handles an enormous amount of traffic. Every year, around 10,000 new games see the light of day on Steam, and every day, millions of us gamers flock to this popular PC storefront to purchase and enjoy our favorite titles. By market share, Steam is the undisputed king of gaming platforms on PC, renowned for its frequent and massive sales events.

As an avid follower of gaming industry news, I was fascinated by the intriguing details unveiled in the Valve vs. Wolfire lawsuit coverage published by GamesIndustry.biz last year. The documentation revealed that Valve had a workforce of 336 individuals in 2021, with only 79 of them dedicated to managing Steam. This small team was responsible for overseeing the release of an astounding 10,000 games on the platform during that same year. Simply put, these numbers paint a picture of an incredibly efficient and productive operating model the Valve team must have in place to keep up with such an enormous workload.

It’s safe to assume that means the 79 employees were (or are) split up between:

  • Technical operations
  • UI
  • Networking
  • Sales and purchasing
  • Provider management
  • Security
  • CX
  • Onboarding

Additionally, there are other prerequisites needed to operate Steam. This is a significant task for a small team, but given that Steam is the leading platform, I suppose they don’t have cause for complaint.

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2024-07-18 10:45