The Number of Chinese Users on Steam Has Exceeded 50% of the Total Player Base

Chinese-speaking users are now making up more than half of Steam’s global player base, according to the Steam Hardware & Software Survey: February 2025.

Following Steam’s monthly survey about what kinds of computer hardware and software their customers are using, Valve detected that the percentage of Chinese-speaking users skyrocketed to 50.06% in February 2025 from January’s 29.18% showing a 20.88% increase.

Historically, Steam sees an uptick in Chinese users during the Chinese New Year holiday, but these increases have generally been around 10% or less. For example, in February 2024, the increase was just 7.26%, making this year’s surge nearly three times higher than usual.

In contrast, English-speaking users, who once dominated the platform with an average 40% share until 2020, now sit at just 23.79%, showing the biggest gap between the two demographics ever.

One of the key factors driving this surge is likely the success of Black Myth: Wukong, a 2024 action role-playing game developed and published by Chinese company Game Science. As of January 2025, the game inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West has sold over 25 million copies worldwide since its release in August 2024. Black Myth: Wukong sold 10 million copies within the first three days from launch and reached 20 million sales by the end of its first month, considering that just 30% of these sales originated from outside China.

This surge in Chinese Steam users aligns with a broader expansion of China’s gaming industry. According to the 2024 China Games Industry Report, the country’s console gaming market alone grew by 55.13% year-on-year, while overall, China’s gaming market expanded by 7.53% in 2024, reaching a value of $44.8 billion.