Steam

video game store and digital distribution platform among other services

AI overview

Steam is a digital store and platform where people can buy, download, and play video games on their computers. It's one of the largest marketplaces for PC games and has become important because it makes it easy for players to access thousands of games and for game developers to reach customers worldwide.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Official website: store.steampowered.com
Image: New steam chat.png

Show 13 more facts

Commons category: Steam (software)
software version identifier: 1766612892 (SteamClient023)
inception: 2003-09-12
publication date: 2003-09-12
search formatter URL: store.steampowered.com/search/?term=$1
name: Steam
Alexa rank: 208
privacy policy URL: store.steampowered.com/privacy_agreement
social media followers: 7751273
public key fingerprint: BA18 16EF 8E75 005F CF5E 27A1 F24A EA9F B054 98B7
checksum: 73890a096e97e2f93f8da9660d39e1b9bd09e6269aacc87c7a8d59d2bc1f3c161ee81923533bd6b43192db8339491ac143bab3e1b3a50dfe6a1fd8b9803d7027
exact match: www.videogameschronicle.com/?post_type=platforms&p=45
Stack Exchange tag: stackoverflow.com/tags/steam

Sources (15)

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Article

Steam is a digital distribution platform for PC games by the American video game studio Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 to provide video game updates automatically for Valve's games and expanded to distributing third-party titles in late 2005. Steam offers various features, such as game server matchmaking with Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) measures, social networking, and game streaming services. The Steam client functions include update maintenance, cloud storage, and community features such as direct messaging, an in-game overlay, discussion forums, and a virtual collectable marketplace. The storefront also offers productivity software, game soundtracks, videos, and sells hardware made by Valve, such as the Valve Index and the Steam Deck.

Steamworks, an application programming interface (API) released in 2008, is used by developers to integrate Steam's functions, including digital rights management (DRM), into their products. Several game publishers began distributing their products on Steam that year. Initially developed for Windows, Steam was ported to macOS and Linux in 2010 and 2013 respectively, while a mobile version of Steam for interacting with the service's online features was released on iOS and Android in 2012.