Study: Steam gaining mindshare in gaming market
December 8, 2022
Plume has revealed insights into the game console market from a study conducted from homes powered by its cloud-driven solution.
The latest Plume IQ explores the rate at which Plume-powered homes are adding game consoles to their networks, the popularity of game console brands, and data usage, with new entrant Steam arriving to potentially disrupt the gaming status quo.
Key findings from the report include:
- Deployments of new game consoles are slowing: since the onset of the pandemic, there has been a slowdown in the number of game consoles from the leading brands introduced to Plume-powered homes. This may be due to component supply issues, but could also be related to the fact that few new game consoles have been introduced to refresh the market.
- Nintendo claims the top spot for popularity: when it comes to game console ownership, Nintendo (41.3 per cent) leads Microsoft (38.2 per cent), flipping their respective positions from Plume’s April 2019 study. Sony takes third place (19.7 per cent). It’s interesting to note that a new entrant, Steam, is taking market share, albeit currently at only 0.6 per cent of the installed base.
- Steaming ahead: despite the slowdown in the deployment of game consoles, usage remains high with the average daily data consumption for all console brands—apart from Nintendo (0.6 GB)—well above the average of 1.2 GB for all devices connected to the Plume Cloud. Noting that as all games must be downloaded or streamed, Steam users top the data usage chart with a staggering 9.2 GB of data consumed on average per day.
“Our latest Plume IQ study reveals some fascinating changes, and possible disruption, in the game console market,” said David Huynh, Chief Product Officer at Plume. “In a reversal of our first study in April 2019, Nintendo now leads Microsoft in game console popularity, however, more notable is Steam’s entry into what has been a very established triopoly, with the new platform starting to take market share and its users topping the data usage charts.”