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Windows Central

Technology

Adam Hales

Sony’s billion-dollar PC boom — and why skipping more Steam ports now seems impossible

Steam Sony PlayStation Helldivers 2 Xbox Samsung

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Since 2020, Sony has been porting a select group of its games to PC after their initial launch on PlayStation hardware. Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam marked the start of this shift. A new dataset from Alinea Analytics now outlines how these PC releases have performed over the past five years.

Over that period, PlayStation titles on Steam have accumulated 43 million sales. Combined revenue reaches 1.5 billion dollars before Valve takes its cut. Sony ultimately keeps around 1.2 billion dollars, which highlights how successful this strategy has become. Steam is now a reliable part of Sony’s wider revenue plan, and it has not disrupted sales of its console hardware.

The full breakdown of Steam sales

Analytics regarding PlayStation sales on Steam (Image credit: Alinea Analytics)

Unsurprisingly, Helldivers 2 leads PlayStation’s Steam sales with 12.7 million copies and more than 400 million dollars in revenue. Horizon Zero Dawn follows with 4.5 million copies sold, which still surprises me, as I think it is the weakest PlayStation franchise. God of War comes next with 4.2 million sold, followed by Days Gone at 3.4 million, and Spider-Man Remastered at 2.7 million.

These figures come directly from Alinea Analytics, which often reports accurate sales data before companies publish official numbers. Its dataset shows that Helldivers 2 has sold more than double the copies on Steam compared to PlayStation 5. It also indicates that sequels sell less than half of what their predecessors managed on Steam during identical timeframes. Each sequel still brings in millions for Sony, but the gap is noticeable.

Alinea Analytics believes that delayed PC releases might contribute to this decline. Shorter gaps between PlayStation and Steam launches could help maintain audience excitement and improve performance on PC. Poor PC ports likely play a role, too. Spider-Man 2 was widely described as Sony’s worst PC port so far, and performance issues on launch are always a concern for PC players who depend on stable optimisation.

Why Sony should commit to more PC releases

Sony’s Steam results show that PC ports are a reliable source of revenue. Even with Helldivers 2 carrying most of the weight, it is challenging to ignore the 1.2 billion dollars earned from bringing existing games to PC. That alone makes the strategy worthwhile.

Shorter gaps between PlayStation and PC launches could help sustain momentum. There are also major PlayStation franchises still missing from Steam. Ratchet and Clank collections, Gravity Rush, Infamous, the original Uncharted trilogy, Bloodborne, and the Demon’s Souls remake all feel like easy wins that could bring in significant revenue.

I have been enjoying PlayStation titles on my Xbox Ally X through Steam, and I am even considering picking up Spider-Man Miles Morales and Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. If Sony ports more of its catalogue to PC, those games will also be playable on Xbox hardware through Xbox Ally devices, and potentially on the rumoured PC based Xbox console that is expected to run Steam.