Steam Users Downloaded 33 Exabytes Of Data And Spent 4.3M Years Playing Games In 2021
Do you know how many hours you spent playing video games last year? Valve does (if you use Steam), and when added together with every other Steam user, the collective tally came to 38 billion hours, a 21 percent increase over 2020. That works out to 4.3 million years. Not quite close to the time that's elapsed since dinosaurs went extinct, but still a mind-boggling stat.
It's also just one of many details Valve share in its Steam 2021 Year in Review report. Yes, we're into March already, but perhaps Valve was busier getting Steam Deck out the door than compiling all these fun numbers. Such as delivering nearly 33 exabytes of content to players in 2021, a 30 percent jump over the "already substantial growth of 2020."
"It’s pretty hard to grasp a number that big, but just for fun: 33 exabytes is about how much data you’d use if the 330 million people in the United States all downloaded a 100GB game. With more customers and larger game downloads, a robust and efficient network is essential—and as always, there are no fees or charges associated with game install size, bandwidth usage, or game updates," Valve states.
While the number itself is interesting, it's what the figure represents that is truly remarkable. And that's a solid infrastructure. Steam is a juggernaut in the digital delivery sector, and it impressively maintains its own massive network of servers to deliver content around the world. It also partners with ISPs to ensure that things don't get bogged down on that last mile.
"A major priority in 2021 was optimization and efficiency, and we began an upgrade process to reduce our physical footprint and power usage thanks to increased CPU capacity and capability. For instance, upgrades to our servers in Los Angeles cut power usage there by 50 percent, even while delivering more and faster downloads to customers," Valve says.
Valve has already upgraded a quarter of those server locations, and is aggressively shooting to get at least half of them upgraded by the middle of this year. It's an important goal, in light of Steam's continued growth and the amount of data it is pushing out to users.
That growth, by the way, amounted to a peak of 27.4 million concurrent players last year, as well as 69 million daily active players and 132 million monthly active players. Player spending saw a big uptick as well, to the tune of 27 percent compared to the year before. Not to shabby, considering this all came about during the first year that Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S were on the market (both launched in November 2020).
Check out the full Steam 2021 Year in Review report for more fun stats.
