While many might look at Steam as the default platform for gaming on the PC, it obviously hasn't got everyone on board yet, as its user base is growing all the time and according to new statistics, that growth is accelerating too.

Back in January last year, Steam had a concurrent user record of around five million. Impressive. But by November that year it had hit six million – even more so. However, what's more of a noteworthy statistic, is that it had grown by another 10 per cent – to 6.6million – by January this year. This led PCGamer to do a bit of maths and come up with the figure of 300 per cent faster growth than this time last year.

It also addressed where these newly registered gamers might be coming from. It turns out a lot of them are DotA 2 fans, as that game is seeing the biggest growth in players. In October last year it only had 100,000 of them, but that has swelled to well over 250,000 now – and that game technically isn't even released yet.

Of course six million players at one time, while an impressive feat, is likely a small percentage of the total number of active Steam users. Those numbers could explode even more if the rumours we heard last year about the world's most popular game, League of Legends, turn out to be true.

KitGuru Says: It's been a long long time since I bought a new game anywhere but Steam, GoG, or through Humble Bundle. Why would you need to?

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