Steam reportedly raked in a record-breaking $1.6 billion in December with Arc Raiders alone moving over a million copies

Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht. — (Image credit: Valve software)

2025 may have been a mixed bag overall, but as far as videogames are concerned, it was pretty great. If you're a PC gamer, your cup runneth over so much that you may still be catching up on the year's biggest hits even now, and you're not alone. In fact, one industry analysis group reckons Dec. 2025 was Steam's highest-grossing December ever.

That estimation comes courtesy of Alinea Analytics, which reported that last month saw over 100 million Steam users generate $1.6 billion dollars in gross revenue. That would make it the platform's best Christmas month in history. The report explains "that’s up 22.7% over December 2024 and even more than December 2020’s pandemic-driven high of $1.4 billion."

The report also notes that Arc Raiders is the second-biggest breadwinner of the season⁠—the first is eternally Counter-Strike 2, as dictated by the laws of physics—with a staggering 1.2 million copies sold just in the weeks between Dec. 21 and Jan. 4. As the article puts it, "the brakes are broken on the ARC Raiders train," with the game selling 12 million copies overall. 250,000 copies were apparently sold on Boxing Day alone, with almost 3.2 million players checking in and half of them doing so on Steam.

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Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

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