Valve had its worker and payroll information leaked via a poorly redacted doc in an antitrust lawsuit in Might, providing a uncommon glimpse into the corporate’s small however impactful workforce over time. As first observed by SteamDB’s Pavel Djundik, Valve’s vital affect in PC gaming transactions has been maintained by just some hundred staff. Kyle Orland studies by way of Ars Technica: It is putting to think about simply how small Valve is in comparison with different main gamers within the sport {industry}. In 2021, Microsoft estimated Valve’s annual income at $6.5 billion, roughly on the identical scale as EA’s $7.5 billion in 2024 income. However Steam achieved these numbers with round 350 staff, in comparison with properly over 13,000 folks employed by EA. The disparity highlights simply how a lot cash Valve brings in with a comparatively small workforce. And lots of that’s because of the chunk of income Valve takes from each sale on Steam. The dominant PC gaming market has seen a large improve within the variety of annual sport releases since 2012 or so, because of initiatives like Steam Greenlight and Steam Direct.
But, surprisingly, the dimensions of the “Steam” division inside Valve has shrunk lately, from a peak of 142 staff in 2015 down to simply 79 in 2021. From the skin, having simply 79 staff conserving monitor of greater than 11,000 Steam releases in 2021 is a fairly unbelievable ratio. Some readers may be shocked that Valve’s “Video games” division has represented a majority of the corporate’s headcount since 2003. That has remained true (although to a lesser extent) even in more moderen years, as Valve’s output of latest video games has turn out to be rather more occasional. It appears seemingly numerous these Video games division staff are dedicated to ultra-popular Valve video games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2, which get pleasure from tens of tens of millions of gamers and want vital help work.
The leaked information additionally reveals the gradual rise of Valve’s small {Hardware} division, which began with simply three staff in 2011 as the corporate started work on its doomed Steam Machines initiative. Transitioning into the Valve Index period within the late 2010s, the {hardware} division nonetheless represented just some dozen folks and a paltry 3 to 4 p.c of the corporate’s annual payroll. By the point we hit 2021 and the run-up to the Steam Deck, the {Hardware} division nonetheless makes up simply 12 p.c of Valve’s small complete headcount. Wanting again, it is spectacular that such a small crew was capable of create a transportable gaming machine that rapidly spawned an entire micro-industry of imitators. We will solely hope the {Hardware} crew bought a little bit extra worker help within the wake of the Steam Deck’s market success.