At 30 million members, Steam still bigger than Xbox Live

October 18th, 2010

Valve today announced that Steam, its online PC game service, has reached 30 million members, 5 million more than the popular Xbox Live service.

"During the past 12 months the platform had year-over-year new user growth of 178%, pushing the total number of active accounts to over 30 million, with over 1,200 games now offered," Valve said in a statement. "Peak simultaneous player numbers were also up to over three million, with over six million unique gamers accessing Steam each day."

For comparison, Microsoft's Xbox Live, the largest console game network, currently boasts 25 million members, of which an undisclosed number are required to pay an extra $60 per year to play online multiplayer-enabled games. On the contrary, online multiplayer is free for Steam users.

Over the past year, Steam quietly surpassed Xbox Live as the most popular online game service, and has enjoyed much faster growth, thanks in part to its free membership and no-hassle experience.

How about them apples?

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