Steam’s momentum keeps getting bigger, and the numbers from late 2025 make that hard to ignore. The PC gaming platform recently set a fresh record by surpassing 42 million concurrent users online at the same time, reinforcing its position as the dominant place people go to buy and play games. Financially, it also ended 2025 on a major high, pulling in more than $1.6 billion in revenue in December alone—its highest-earning month ever.
But according to GOG’s new owner, Michał Kiciński, Steam’s lead isn’t primarily about having the best games. He argues it’s mainly about convenience. In his view, Steam is “winning with its ease of use,” and that’s the real competitive advantage that keeps people from bothering with alternatives—even when those alternatives have strong ideas behind them.
Kiciński, known as a co-founder of CD Projekt Red, acquired GOG in December 2025. In recent comments, he pushed back on the common assumption that Steam’s roughly 80% market share makes the platform practically untouchable. He sees that huge share as a long-term vulnerability rather than an unbeatable shield. From his perspective, when one store controls most of the market, defending that position becomes harder over time, because there’s less room to grow and more pressure to keep every type of user satisfied.
He’s also clearly aware of how difficult it has been for other PC game storefronts to compete in Steam’s shadow, even with big budgets and aggressive strategies. Still, Kiciński frames the landscape in a straightforward way: one massive competitor dominates the space, and that can actually make it simpler to aim your strategy. Instead of being surrounded by dozens of equally strong rivals, GOG can focus on building an identity that pulls players in for specific reasons.
That identity, he suggests, should lean into what makes GOG different—especially its curated approach. While Steam is known for adding a flood of new releases every day, Kiciński questioned the value of that volume, implying that plenty of those games don’t meet a high bar for quality. GOG, on the other hand, positions itself as a more selective storefront, treating curation as a strength rather than a limitation. His message is clear: instead of trying to win by sheer size, GOG wants to win by taste, standards, and a clearer point of view.
At the same time, Kiciński doesn’t sound interested in a direct war with Steam. He described the idea of trying to outmatch the market leader head-on as “wrestling with Goliath,” and emphasized a different goal: building a platform that stands for something specific and meaningful. Even while acknowledging that Steam gets a lot right, he raised a larger question about what Steam’s mission is today—and implied that clarity and focus could be where GOG finds its opening.
If Kiciński follows through on improving usability without abandoning GOG’s core values, the competition could get more interesting. Steam may be bigger than ever, but GOG’s new leadership is betting that a cleaner experience and a more curated catalog can still carve out real growth in the PC gaming market.
