A big report from Alinea Analytics estimates that Sony has made $1.5 billion from Steam since beginning to port its first-party titles to the PC storefront.
That may seem like an enormous number, but it’s worth noting it’s taken five years to achieve. For context, the entire PlayStation division generated around $7 billion in revenue during the last quarter alone.
The data firm points out that Sony is also on the hook to Valve for 30% of that total, so it took home around $1.2 billion of the aforementioned money made.
According to its predictions, Helldivers 2 is by far the best-selling game the Japanese giant’s released on PC, with Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War the next in line.
What’s interesting is that the sequels Sony’s releasing on PC are not performing anywhere near as well as their predecessors. It hypothesises that Horizon Forbidden West has sold three times slower than Aloy’s inaugural adventure, while the same phenomenon also applies to God of War Ragnarok and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
This slowing of sales suggests the novelty of Sony bringing its games to Steam is beginning to wear off, and the ports are not having the same kind of impact they once were.
Reducing the delay between the PS5 version and PC release could help improve these sales, although Sony would need to weigh that against the impact on its own console – especially with the impending release of the Steam Machine and Microsoft’s own intent to transform Xbox into an open ecosystem.
There were rumours recently that the platform holder may be reducing its overall emphasis on PC, although we’ll need to see that reflected by its actions.
For now, though, assuming these estimates are accurate, it’s clear Steam is a nice a sweetener for Sony – but it’s far from the be all and end all.
