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Over the last decade, SteamDB has become the go-to chart site if you’re interested in knowing how a game is doing on the platform, or whether it’s worth buying it yourself. It’s an undoubtedly useful tool, but in more recent years, it’s also managed to become a bit of a problem.
If you have a Steam account, then it’s likely that you’ve visited SteamDB at least once to get stats about the latest releases, what’s popular, and what’s worth your attention. And if a game is released only on Steam, it’s the best way to figure out how well that game is doing in terms of player count and reception.
However, a glaring and outright misuse of SteamDB is to use it as evidence of the success (or, more often, the failure) of a multi-platform game, which is something that seems to be happening all too often these days.
SteamDB only counts players on Steam
I know, this seems like a blatantly obvious thing to say, right? Sadly, I feel like it needs to be said, because in recent years, I’ve seen the same argument used time and again: “This game has a low player count on Steam, therefore it’s a failure.”
That’s fine, if these games were only released on Steam, but unfortunately, the majority that face this argument aren’t, with Steam being just one of many platforms through which the game is available.
Judging the popularity of a game released on multiple platforms by the player count on a single one of them seems particularly silly, doesn’t it? But it’s happening. I mean, take a look at this X (or Twitter, if you’re stuck in the past like me) post:
I’ll dive deep into this a bit later, and really dissect what it seems to represent within the gaming community at large, but it’s a great example of somebody using Steam numbers to further their own opinion while ignoring a glaringly obvious fact: Steam is not the only platform where Doom: The Dark Ages can be played.
I mean, let me put this another way. Imagine a company releases a product and takes to doing some market research. They enter a room with 10 people, but rather than taking the opinions of every person in the room, they talk to one of them and then leave, trusting that opinion to be shared by the other nine people they didn’t talk to and touting it as a fact. That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? But that’s exactly what’s happening here.
The Dark Ages is not Doom(ed)
Okay, as promised, I’m going to get a bit deeper on the current situation surrounding Doom: The Dark Ages, and bear with me, because I’m pretty passionate about this, and I might get a bit… Ranty. You’ve been warned.
Here’s the thing, Doom: The Dark Ages is, however you choose to look at it, an expensive game. Purchasing it outright on any platform is going to set you back at least $70. We’re going through a cost-of-living crisis, our money is as precious as our time these days, and that’s a lot to spend on a game that’s completed within a couple of days if you really throw yourself into it, or a couple of weeks if you take your time.
Doom: The Dark Ages was also available immediately upon release through Xbox Game Pass entirely for free as long as you had a monthly subscription that costs less than $15. It doesn’t take a genius to see where I’m going with this, does it?
With both of those things in mind, it makes a massive amount of sense that most people likely wouldn’t be playing through Steam. Why would they? Why spend $70 on a non-physical game when they can get the same non-physical game for a fraction of the cost through an already established or newly purchased Xbox Game Pass plan? Purchasing through Steam seems like a silly idea when you consider the alternatives.
All of this is before taking into account those who purchased the game for any other platform, quietly playing on consoles that rarely (if ever) reveal the player counts for their titles.
And yet, here we are, with certain biased members of the gaming community spreading the rhetoric that Doom: The Dark Ages isn’t doing well purely based on the back of Steam player numbers, as though that is the only number that matters.
This bias, or perhaps it’s just a lack of research or care, is displayed even more by comparing Doom with Space Marine 2, which was not available through Game Pass, so purchasing it outright was the only choice for players. This, in turn, boosted the player count of Space Marine 2 for those who use Steam as their platform of choice.
This is not a one-off situation
In the interests of balancing my own argument and proving that this isn’t just based on a single post on social media, I have some other examples of this exact thing happening to other games over the last few years, along with the evidence to back up my claims:
Final Fantasy XIV
The MMO has been heralded as ‘dead’ by the gaming community on various occasions in its decade-long lifespan, and one thing that’s used frequently to ‘back’ this argument is the Steam player count. Judging from Steam, FFXIV has had an all-time concurrent player high of just 95,150, but this is a game that has its own independent launcher (preferred by most PC players over Steam), is available on multiple consoles, and has a hugely active player community.
Stardew Valley
This cozy farm sim is among the most popular games in the world, arguably, and is played on multiple platforms, including PC, various consoles, including the Switch, and mobile. But if you looked at the current player count on SteamDB (71,043), you’d be misled. Millions of people play every day, and the community is thriving.
Revenge of the Savage Planet
On May 17, 2025, Raccoon Logic Studios shared through Discord that Revenge of the Savage Planet has been purchased and played by a million players. According to SteamDB, however, it has had a concurrent player high of only 2,191. The developers aren’t lying here, so it stands to reason that people simply aren’t playing through Steam and choosing to adventure through the cosmos on other platforms.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Let’s face it, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an absolute masterpiece of RPG innovation, offering players a chance to dive into the wonderful D&D-based world and really test themselves. It’s sold over 15 million copies since it was released, so it’s pretty damn popular, however you choose to spin it. The player count high on SteamDB? 875,343. I think it’s safe to say that this number is hardly reflective of the amount of love for BG3.
Steam is not a universal choice
Like I said, I feel pretty passionate about this subject. Here’s the point I’m trying to drive home: SteamDB is not and should never be the measure of the success or popularity of a game if that game is not available exclusively through Steam. There are other platforms that many prefer, and games are widely played on those platforms far more than they are through Steam.
And, on top of everything else I’ve thrown at you here, I feel the need to mention something else that affects the concurrent player count of any game on Steam: Time zones.
Players in Japan, China, or Australia aren’t going to be playing at the same time as those in the US or Europe, which should be an obvious thing to consider, but it’s something that often seems to get forgotten. If you only base the success of a game on the number of people playing at the same time, you’re doing it a disservice. People are constantly logging on and off, but charts on SteamDB don’t account for that unavoidable truth.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t trust anyone who throws SteamDB stats at you when trying to argue that a multi-platform game is struggling. Do some research, use your noggin, and decide for yourself.
With all that said, I’m off to play Doom, through Xbox Game Pass, because I value my money.
