I sometimes have this reaction, and then I reflect that Steam is still a niche that might have peaked long ago given most of the top 10 played games are really

I sometimes have this reaction, and then I reflect that Steam is still a niche that might have peaked long ago given most of the top 10 played games are really old in gaming terms. The top 2 currently most played games were first released ten years ago. If that's the state of gaming then that's a damning indictment of the last 10 years of gaming releases. I'd wager the top 10 are currently as old as they've ever been. Either games have got worse, gaming as a whole has stagnated, or people are playing things which aren't on steam. Between the "xbox live" store thing, the epic store, etc, we're seeing a fragmentation of store-fronts which likely also contributes especially since Steam is the only one that's actually open about their stats. You also have developers like Riot and Blizzard also doing their own thing. For "live service" games like Diablo, Valorant, or indeed Roblox, a store-front like steam doesn't feel as important because it's not all about initial sales and indeed cut-price discounts aren't how the games are sold, with in-game-purchases dominating. This leaves Steam to cater for the single-player market, but given the discrepancy in hours played between even the single player games I've enjoyed the most and the online service games, I can understand why the latter have vastly higher concurrents.