Valve’s PC gaming platform, Steam, is showing consistent growth. Notably, it has been confirmed that the platform is seeing a rapid surge in the Japanese market, a region traditionally considered a stronghold for console gaming.

This fact was revealed at 'DEVCOM,' the developer conference held in Cologne, Germany. Eric Peterson, who handles business operations at Valve, presented the platform's performance under the theme of 'Steam Platform Update 2025.' In this session, Peterson highlighted Japan, Brazil, China, Germany, and the United States as the regions where Steam’s growth has been most prominent from 2020 to 2025.

The most intriguing region is Japan. Traditionally, Japan was dominated by console platforms, with a relatively modest PC gaming market. After the rise of mobile gaming, the market became bifurcated between consoles and mobile. However, the PC gaming market has expanded rapidly as more users began playing mobile titles on PC via Steam, alongside the recent elevation of Apex Legends to the status of a national game and the surging popularity of PC-based esports. According to reports from market research firms like Newzoo, PC game market revenue in Japan has more than doubled over the four-year period from 2020 to 2024.

This influx of PC gamers has led to an increase in core gamers who enjoy titles on dedicated platforms like Steam. Valve’s recent announcement underscores this, signaling that the acceptance of PC gaming in Japan is rising at a breakneck pace. As of August 2025, the download traffic share for Steam in Japan stands at approximately 2.4%, surpassing South Korea at 2.3%. Just two years ago, Japan trailed behind South Korea in traffic volume, but it has now overtaken the region thanks to this steep growth trajectory. Furthermore, the number of users by language on Steam places Japanese at 7th (2.56% of the total), which is about 91% higher than that of Korean (10th, 1.34%).

Meanwhile, Steam currently supports a total of 29 languages, with over 66% of users primarily utilizing a language other than English. Among non-English users, those using Simplified Chinese account for the largest share, followed by Russian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), German, and Japanese.