Why is Steam so successful?

because steam does a lot of things right and it's more than just a DRM, it's a service.

Because they were first (by many years) to do what they do.

maybe because of steam sales, and because it was the first in the market, with a solid fanbase

Money laundering... You didn't hear that from me.

Steam gained a large community and fan-base, by working to please both the developers and the consumers, which spread their popularity. With loyal customers, they've been able to keep strong. EA probably could have had a highly successful platform with Origin if they hadn't alienated as many people as they did, as quick as they did.

Sales and steam codes resellers.

Clearly its DRM. How do you play any legally bought game without Steam? How do you play Dota 2, CSGO or TF2 without Steam? The rest is just clever selling of the Steam DRM so they have most games in their store and most games require Steam as a must.

Because only on Steam you can buy so many hats!

Because CS:GO skins.

They got in early, spread quickly and now have their tentacles wrapped and locked. multiple clients are a pain in the ass so people tend to pick one, steam being the largest(has most stuff)tends to get chosen, this makes it larger ect.

they're so large they've got convenience on their side as well as a sense of inevitability.

I hate steam, hated the online requirements(at least they changed that and finally got offline working) I hate the drm, that I had to install a superfluous program to download install launch and play my games and that I apparently don't actually own and certainly can't sell used. but they're huge, if you're playing on pc you probably have steam, they do sales to get you in, they have workshop, they sell most games and if I need a bullshit drm client I certainly don't want two of them. most games are on steam and most alternate stores(ex humble, gmg) sell stem keys anyway

stupid bullshit consolization of the pc.

I was a real Steam hater before I joined Steam. I hated the rather restrictive DRM, I hated that I had to install a program that always runs in the background only to play my games. I hated that I wasn't allowed to sell my used games. And I hated that I had to pay money for something that I have no real control over (the fear that Steam would one day say 'screw you' for no reason and just lock my account with all the games on it).

Then I bought a Humble Bundle, mainly because I was modding for Legend of Grimrock and wanted to publish my mod on the Steam Workshop for convenience (it was Humble Indie Bundle 7). And soon afterwards I started to collect games, because it was so much fun to buy tons of games for a few dollars and download them immediately. I'm still not 100% convinced and I still wouldn't pay 60$ for a digital Steam game, no matter what it is. But overall Steam convinced me with its ease of use, the huge amount of games available (which is both a pro and a con since many of them require Steam if you want to acquire them legally) and the ridiculously cheap prices.

because cult(like apple. and steamers tend to crusade)

It didn't have much competition for a long time.

Because.. Gaben, that's it.

Same reason WoW is still around - they were the first to do it really really well.

Persistance.

IMO steam sucked at first. There is still a certain level of suck, but it sucks less than origin. My preference is always for NoDRM first, then steam.

Gaben's sacrifices.

Linux support. Power to the Penguins!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Cbyi9S2-o

watch what u say, hes watching

Steam has been around for just over a decade. they didnt start off being loved at all, they had the same problems origin and uplay and all the rest have now. they are successful because they were the first, they stuck with it, made good decisions.they took their time to not rush things and force new ideas its users or be too radical with DRM and online requirements. its not exactly the same but look at Microsoft trying to push the cloud and all that stuff on people all at once so hard rather than ease into it and let ppl just experience it and grow into it.

Because steam rises.

Steam did it first and Steam does it best.

The reason why Steam is successful is because Valve's successful games are on it. That and it allows other third party games, deep discounts, and trading and friend messaging, all of which are relatively easy to set up.

There are plenty of things wrong with Steam and plenty of things that should be fixed, but it is still better than most of the competition for buying games.

Steam/Valve has many fetaures that allow the develop of comunities around every game they sell in the store page. That is ones of the most remarkable diference between STEAM and Origin/Uplay. Greenlight, trading card, trading systems, Community Hubs, Free Games (many), Free Weekends, and of course very very nice promition and %OFF.

They don't FORCED the DRM through our throats like others.