Steam is now a billion-dollar business for Sony and PlayStation

And it's mostly thanks to the megahit Helldivers 2, which has reportedly sold over double the amount of copies on PC as it has on PlayStation 5.

Steam is now a billion-dollar business for Sony and PlayStation
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TL;DR: Sony's PlayStation Studios games on Steam have generated $1.5 billion in revenue, with Helldivers 2 as the top-selling title at 12.7 million copies. While sequels show declining PC sales, timely PC releases within six to twelve months of PS5 launches could boost Sony's revenue without harming console sales.

Sony has been slowly becoming more PC-focused with the release of its first- and second-party PlayStation Studios titles on Steam, and it's not hard to see why. According to a new report by Alinea Analytics, PlayStation Studios games released on Steam (PC gaming's number one platform) have generated $1.5 billion in revenue for Sony.

Sony's first-party game sales and revenue on Steam, image credit: Alinea Analytics.
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Sony's first-party game sales and revenue on Steam, image credit: Alinea Analytics.

And even when you take out Valve's cut, that's still around $1.2 billion for Sony. With over 43 million games sold, the biggest seller for Sony isn't Marvel's Spider-Man, God of War, or Horizon Zero Dawn; it's Helldivers 2. And it's not even close, with Helldivers 2 reportedly selling 12.7 million copies on Steam, making it the most popular PlayStation Studios release on PC, with second-place going to Horizon Zero Dawn, which has sold 4.5 million copies.

Alinea Analytics notes that Helldiver 2's success on PC is Sony's first "megahit," with it selling over double the amount of copies on Steam as it did on PS5. Other big sellers on PC for Sony include God of War and Days Gone, which sold 4.2 million and 3.4 million copies, respectively.

Steam is now a billion-dollar business for Sony and PlayStation 3Steam is now a billion-dollar business for Sony and PlayStation 4

However, the report notes that sequels like God of War: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 have failed to reach even half the sales of the originals during the same period. The report notes that this indicates that the "novelty" of playing PlayStation games on PC and Steam is "wearing off." That said, these titles still generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for Sony each.

One way Sony could increase revenue is to reduce the gap between PS5 and PC launches without disrupting the console market. And with Valve's recent announcement of the console-like Steam Machine launching in early 2026, it's going to be a delicate balance that has to factor in several variables.

"A six to twelve-month window would allow PlayStation to capture peak console demand while still capitalising on the strong appetite for premium single-player games on PC," Alinea Analytics' Rhys Elliott explains. "The challenge is finding the right interval that protects PS5 software sales while still satisfying a PC audience that increasingly expects timely releases."