To Steam or not to Steam: How to distribute your PC game

By
Archie Stonehill
,
Head of Product
Dec 18, 2024

There’s no doubt that Steam is an effective place for game developers to reach a wide user base and distribute their PC games. Smash hits like Baldur’s Gate and Counter-Strike 2 have proven what this platform can do to attract millions of users. But what happens after you get enough players into your game - do you still want to be paying the 30% commission fee on every microtransaction? Or is it a better idea to go direct-to-consumer with a channel like a game launcher?

Counter-Strike 2
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Ahead, we’re exploring the benefits of Steam - and the factors you should consider when deciding to go to D2C. Used together, the UA benefits of Steam and the revenue and engagement benefits of a D2C platform can help you make the most out of your game, from the moment you launch it through sustaining its success well into the future.

What you can expect ahead:

Steam’s 3 benefits

D2C’s 3 benefits

Strategies for Steam vs. D2C distribution

What’s your strategy?

The power of Steam, broken down into 3 benefits

We can break down Steam’s major benefits into three main features:

  1. User acquisition and discovery
  2. Piracy protection and prevention with Steam’s digital rights management (DRM) wrapper 
  3. Backend tech to manage their gameplay features, analytics, IAPs, and more through the Steamworks API

Game discovery and UA

Today, the Steam platform boasts:

Steam popularity
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But where it got today has a lot to do with the features that Steam implemented over time. A major example of this was back in 2014 when the platform released the Discovery Update. Before the update, the top of Steam’s homepage - the “main capsule” - worked a lot like how the Apple App Store works today: it had a selection of games that were primarily popular titles and AAA blockbusters, and these were the games most likely to appeal to broad audiences. After the Discovery Update, this main capsule became “a mixture of manually curated titles, personalized recommendations, popular new releases, and top sellers.” And it led to a 30% increase in product page views on the platform, plus more clicks on the main capsule to reach a 25% CTR.

“As a result of the changes introduced with the Steam Discovery Update, now over 4,000 unique titles are shown and clicked on via the Main Cap every day.” - Valve employee, TomG

This feature laid the groundwork for Steam to become a powerful UA and discovery platform for PC games as it changed the nature of discovery from just broad appeal to a preference-based process. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Steam’s discovery engine has transformed the entire games industry.

“Games are served to users based on their interests and preferences, while their wider friends network or breakout hits in the local region are also factors in what games users are shown.” - Pocketgamer

Indie hits like Balatro are a great example of Steam’s UA power. It’s the story of one man (solo developer, LocalThunk) with limited financial backing releasing one of the biggest hits of 2024. The game sold over 500K copies in less than 10 days after launch, surpassed 1 million copies sold in less than 1 month, and got nominated for Game of the Year and won three awards at the Game Awards

How did this simple-looking game from a little-known developer do it? In addition to benefitting from Steam’s proprietary recommendation algorithm,  LocalThunk took full advantage of Steam’s marketing and discovery capabilities, including:

“We identified three key marketing pillars to underpin our campaign: A playable demo, influencer engagement, and stirring a passionate community.” - Liz Cheng-Moore of Playstack

For developers launching new games, Steam offers a variety of ways to advertise and reward titles with higher engagement by recommending them to players. The platform prides itself on a community of millions of engaged players, so even indie darlings like Balatro can get discovered.

Balatro demo
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DRM and anti-piracy provisions

Beyond discovery, users and developers enjoy using Steam because it manages entitlements on behalf of developers. For users, it’s convenient to have all of your games accessible in one place. And for developers, it’s helpful to authenticate owner identity and keep track of who owns what version of their game. 

That type of entitlement management is a key part of Steam’s copyright protection and anti-piracy processes that Valve built into the platform early on in development. So the Steam Digital Rights Management (DRM) wrapper was born as a piece of technology that helps prevent copyright infringement and piracy. 

“For Valve the biggest push is to lock down those "zero day" pirates. Day zero is the time between when a game goes gold and when it is available for purchase.” - Kotaku

Steam’s DRM is a system that licenses out a game to players - so when users purchase a Steam game, they’re getting a license to play it. It’s different from buying a physical copy - because if the game is taken off from Steam, users lose access to it. It also prevents users from sharing a game or accessing it on other devices unless they’re logged into their Steam accounts.

Using Steam’s integrated DRM, developers get access to all of its copyright protection mechanisms - and are able to integrate it with their own DRM solutions (like end-user license agreements) for added security. 

Steamworks API

The Steamworks API is a piece of middleware that offers a full suite of tools - which developers can use to do everything from managing launch (e.g. playtesting and custom product pages) and handling marketing (e.g. Early Access and Curator Connect) to improving the in-game player experience (e.g. Steam overlay and Steam Voice). Developers just need to plug the API into their backend to take advantage of these features, which are far more robust than most mobile storefronts. 

For studios launching a new title - or their very first game - tools like those on Steamworks can be incredibly useful to help them get started, get feedback, and offer players a great experience from the start. The Early Access feature, which lets players try out a game before a full rollout helps them prove the game concept, identify bugs, gather player feedback, and get funding. Early Access has been used by many games already to achieve success, helping them build tons of hype before the full launch. As a result, the number of games using Early Access has increased over time - reaching over 1800 in 2023, compared to 1550 in 2022.

Steam Early Access
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Comparing the benefits of going D2C

The Steamworks API and its many functionalities offer developers like LocalThunk the ability to test their games, start generating revenue early on, and build momentum even prior to launch - but questions about the future and what happens next are where direct-to-consumer channels come in. D2C channels like a game launcher are the key to sustaining the success built on Steam, improving the player experience, and starting to shift the spend of your highest-value players to a direct channel.

There are a few reasons why studios like Riot Games, Plarium, Theorycraft, and Mainframe all went D2C with their own game launchers. 

Higher revenue

Steam is a great platform for launching your game and reaching a wide audience, but in terms of driving long-term revenue, it’s difficult to widen your profit margins when you’re paying Steam 30% in commission fees on IAPs. Even if you’re a major player in the industry, that 30% commission fee can add up when you’re generating millions in revenue.

Meanwhile, a D2C channel like a game launcher for PC lets you bypass this fee altogether, which creates higher margins for long-term, sustainable revenue growth. So when your highest-value players start using your game launcher instead of Steam, you pocket a lot more of that spend and can put it towards other parts of your operation. 

For a full breakdown of how much you can save with a launcher like Stash, use our interactive fee calculator.

Community and engagement

Steam offers some pretty effective tools for marketing your game and getting it out there to users. But these are most useful for attracting new players - not building a world around your game. 

Through game launcher design, you can add engagement features and social systems to keep building value for your players, nurture your community, and create thousand-hour experiences. And unlike Steam, all this lives directly in your launcher so it feels like an extension of your game universe, rather than sending them to a different platform.

Content, guides, creator partnerships, and lore can all be built directly into your game launcher, which can foster deeper engagement and let players interact with your game’s universe in a completely new way. There are also different community features like chats, matchmaking, and esports to help players make new connections and foster that feeling of inclusion - all of which go a long way to retain users in the long run.

D2C game launcher community features

For example, a game launcher for PC like the Riot Client lets players easily switch between their favorite Riot games, like League of Legends, Valorant, and Runeterra. Beyond gameplay, the launcher also includes trailers, news and game updates, tips and game guides, and links off-platform to more IP-related content, like the Arcane series on Netflix. All of these features help improve the player experience beyond Riot’s games and give them new ways to engage with their favorite titles. 

Riot D2C game launcher

Custom analytics

Steam can feel like a black box when it comes to giving developers access to sales attribution, player identity information, traffic sources, and other analytics. Like Stewart Chisam, CEO of Hi-Rez, put it: “Due to their nature as a platform, they know everyone who has played our game on their platform, how much they spent, growth trends over time, markets where the game performs better or worse, what other games our players play, everything meaningful.” 

But platforms like Steam don’t often make this information available to devs. For example, in 2023 Steam removed developer access to Google Analytics - this made it impossible to get insights into audience demographics and first-party data.

And when Steam rolled out their UTM analytics feature in 2021, most developers didn’t find it useful for tracking the performance and ROI of their marketing campaigns. Over 54% of developers said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with the feature.

analytics benefit of game launcher: devs unsatisfied with Steam
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A proprietary game launcher creator gives you full control and access to data, including first-party player data, like:

  • Marketing sources and sales attribution
  • Richer engagement data as players move from launcher to gameplay
  • Direct first-party player identity information, like email

You can also establish a direct connection with players and reach them through channels like email and social. Using player emails, for example, you can build retargeting campaigns on social platforms that improve your marketing and UA strategies.

Strategies for Steam vs. D2C distribution

With all these benefits in mind, it’s pretty clear that building a game launcher is a good idea. But when should you do it and start moving over your highest spenders? There’s no line in the sand for when to introduce a game launcher - it’s not at X number of users or $Y revenue earned after launch. Instead, there are three strategies that most studios follow, depending on their type of game and available resources:

Strategy 1: Gather your players in Steam, then shift them to a D2C channel

You can launch your game in Steam, then once you have enough of a player base and a library of content, shift them to a D2C channel. Again, there’s no magic number for the amount of players you need or library of content you should have before using a launcher. The idea is that you can identify your highest-value players and have enough content to direct your focus to other parts of your operation - namely, building out a D2C strategy.

For example, Grand Theft Auto V from Rockstar Games was initially released on console in 2013, then for PC on Steam in April 2015. It quickly succeeded, earning a peak concurrent player count of 354,548 shortly after the Steam release. By 2018, it reached over 10 million copies sold on the platform and became the 3rd best-selling video game in the world. Then in 2019 Rockstar released their Rockstar Games Launcher for Windows desktops - and they began distributing Grand Theft Auto V directly through the launcher.

Rockstar game launcher
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They still kept the game available for purchase on Steam and in May 2020 also began distributing on Epic Game Store. But all users need a Rockstar Games account and to have the launcher installed, even as they play the game through Steam. Making the launcher a requisite part of the gameplay experience didn’t stop GTA V from growing: it surpassed 205 million units sold, with 5 million copies regularly sold every quarter. And it’s earned over $8.6 billion in lifetime revenue, with quarterly revenue consistently above $150 million since its release on the Rockstar Games Launcher.

GTA revenue
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GTA V had already built a loyal community by the time the launcher was released. These players, in particular, enjoy the extra features of a launcher that improve their gameplay experience, immerse them deeper in the Rockstar Games universe and the GTA IP, and give them a first-row seat to the latest news and updates about their favorite games from the studio.

And for Rockstar Games - and the game’s publisher, Take-Two - they get to enjoy the benefits of going D2C with a launcher, like earning direct revenue that bypasses Steam’s 30% commission fee.  By the time they introduced the Rockstar Game Launcher, GTA V already had built a user base big enough for Rockstar to identify the highest spenders - shifting even a portion of these highest-value players to D2C can drive significant profit. Let’s say they moved 30% of that $150 million ($50 million) in total player spend to the launcher. Including the 30% Steam fees on the remaining traffic and additional 10% D2C provider/processing fees, Rockstar is saving over $12 million by shifting some spend to their launcher - now imagine if they can shift $100 million of that spend!

Strategy 2: What if you’re coming from mobile?

It’s a fact that mobile-first studios are porting their mobile games over to PC. Developers like Scopely, Plarium, and Funplus are all examples of developers that went cross-platform after achieving success first on mobile. 

If you’ve already acquired your audience on mobile, it can be a good idea to launch the PC version through a game launcher first. This represents a similar strategy to the PC games we’ve just gone over that started by acquiring their users on Steam, then shifting their highest spenders to a launcher.

So why not go from mobile directly to Steam? That has to do with the unique features of the mobile ecosystem. On mobile, you can use programmatic tools (e.g. ad networks) to acquire users, then shift players to PC. You don’t need Steam’s UA or discovery power because you have the tools you need on mobile to reach and acquire users. And you don’t need access to Steam’s other capabilities, like Steamworks or content management protection because you have those features on mobile already. It makes sense to instead go straight to D2C and save that 30% on Steam’s commission fees.

That’s what RAID: Shadow Legends from Plarium did. The game was first released on iOS and Android worldwide in early 2019 where it quickly became a success, earning over $107 million in revenue in its first year.

RAID revenue
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Then in January 2020, it was ported to PC and launched exclusively through Plarium Play, the studio’s proprietary launcher. The game has since gone on to earn over $2 billion in lifetime revenue and achieve over 200 million installs across all platforms. 

Plarium D2C game launcher
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We’re not saying this is a one-size-fits-all approach - there are some mobile games that can benefit from launching on Steam when they first port over to PC. Those that have a recognizable IP and aren’t as reliant on the mobile ecosystem for UA can benefit from Steam’s discoverability. 

For example, MARVEL SNAP from Second Dinner was released on mobile in October 2022 and in Early Access for Windows on Steam at the same time as a free-to-play game. The game is a very popular IP with relatively accessible gameplay, so it benefitted from Steam’s discovery capabilities to attract a segment of PC players who come from games like Hearthstone. As a result, MARVEL SNAP topped the Steam F2P charts and earned an estimated +$19.4 million on the platform in just over a year.

Strategy 3: Starting with a D2C launcher, then going to Steam

Starting with a game launcher then moving to Steam only makes sense for a VC-backed studio or a developer with plenty of resources, publisher backing, or a well-established IP. That’s because studios like these can acquire their early players outside of Steam - they’re not as reliant on the platform for organic recognition and discovery as smaller studios are. 

Starting with D2C is a great approach to gather player feedback from a core group of users - and drive direct revenue without giving Steam 30% of the cut. As long as your go-to-market strategy is strong so you know when you’re ready to release to the wider audience on Steam, this approach could work for you.

Supervive from Theorycraft is one example of a game that started off distributing via a game launcher before moving to Steam. The studio raised $50 million in Series B funding from VCs like Makers Fund, NEA, and a16z in September 2022. At the end of June 2023, they opened up Supervive for pre-alpha testing. By the following year, they moved onto alpha playtesting through the game’s own website. Here, the Alpha Play Test earned significant engagement, with stream viewers watching 742K hours of the game in its first weekend of playtesting.

Supervive results after game launcher playtest
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Now the game is entering open beta testing on Steam after gathering helpful player feedback, building a core community, and earning plenty of positive reviews (like PC Games’ “Supervive may be the reason I quit League of Legends” and DualShockers’ “SUPERVIVE Could Be My Next 10,000 Hour Game”) from the early versions released on the launcher.

Then there’s EVE Frontier from CCP Games, a new installment of the EVE Online franchise that began over 20 years ago. From its launch in 2003, Eve Online drove over $300 million in revenue within 8 years - earning $66 million alone in 2011. Fast forward to today, and the IP drove over $42 million in revenue in Q2 2024. Now there are tons of expansion packs of the original game on PC, mobile versions of the game (EVE Echoes and Galaxy Conquest), and an FPS game in the works (EVE Vanguard).

EVE IP revenue
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There’s also a web3 release coming soon: EVE Frontier. For this title, CCP opted to use their proprietary launcher to playtest the game first. The idea is to gather player feedback, improve the game, then launch more broadly on Steam. It’s common knowledge that Steam reviews can make or break a game, or affect decisions about a game. Like Helldivers 2 from Arrowhead, which reversed its decision to require linking to their PSN account on Steam after receiving over 200K negative reviews that dropped the game’s score below 50% on the platform. So one of the reasons CCP Games released their game directly on their launcher during pre-alpha and alpha testing was to gather player feedback and optimize to give it the best possible chance of achieving positive reviews on Steam at full launch.

EVE game launcher
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What’s your strategy?

With the strategies we laid out above, it’s time to make a choice. If you’re already on Steam, it could be time to move your highest spenders over to a launcher and start driving direct revenue. Same goes if you’re on mobile - if you’ve cracked UA there, you can start building a direct relationship with players and increasing revenue by porting over to PC and going D2C. And if you’re about to launch a game, think about distributing it directly through a launcher first to gather valuable feedback and refine it before releasing it to a wider audience on Steam. We’re here to help with any strategy: talk to us at Stash about how to make a game launcher.

About the Author

Archie Stonehill

Head of Product
Archie Stonehill is the Head of Product at Stash, collaborating with top game studios to build a first of its kind direct-to-consumer platform for games. Previously, he was Engagement Manager and Senior Expert Advisor in Games at McKinsey, and following that, was a Principal at Makers Fund, working closely with founders and investing in the next big studios. As a hardcore gamer himself, Archie is deeply passionate about the impact D2C will have on player experiences and industry innovation.
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