Valve had its worker and payroll knowledge leaked by way of a poorly redacted doc in an antitrust lawsuit in Could, 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 only a few hundred staff. Kyle Orland stories by way of Ars Technica: It is putting to contemplate simply how small Valve is in comparison with different main gamers within the recreation {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 individuals employed by EA. The disparity highlights simply how a lot cash Valve brings in with a comparatively small workforce. And lots of that’s due to the chunk of income Valve takes from each sale on Steam. The dominant PC gaming market has seen an enormous improve within the variety of annual recreation releases since 2012 or so, due to initiatives like Steam Greenlight and Steam Direct.
But, surprisingly, the dimensions of the “Steam” division inside Valve has shrunk in recent times, 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 reasonably unbelievable ratio. Some readers can also be stunned 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 recent video games has turn out to be rather more occasional. It appears possible numerous these Video games division staff are dedicated to ultra-popular Valve video games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2, which take pleasure in tens of thousands and thousands of gamers and wish vital assist work.
The leaked knowledge 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 only a few dozen individuals and a paltry 3 to 4 % 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 % of Valve’s small complete headcount. Wanting again, it is spectacular that such a small crew was in a position to create a transportable gaming system that rapidly spawned a complete micro-industry of imitators. We are able to solely hope the {Hardware} crew bought a little bit extra worker assist within the wake of the Steam Deck’s market success.