Thanks to $16.2B revenue, Steam Deck maker now pulls in over $50 million per employee according to report

Valve is a company that needs no introduction, at least for those who care about gaming - whether it be the hardware, or the software side. The Steam Deck is by far one of the most popular and successful gaming handhelds, having single-handedly rescued the Linux gaming industry, while Steam has proven itself to be the iTunes of video games.

Needless to say, Valve makes a ton of money off its arguably excellent products, and manages to get it done with a relatively small team considering the scale of its operations. Unlike other big-name tech giants such as Google and Meta, Valve is a private company, and is therefore under no obligation to reveal its financials.

However, analysts are pretty good at their jobs for the most part, and have been able to estimate just how much money Valve makes. According to Alinea Analytics, Valve has made roughly $16.2 billion from Steam alone, and the company is expected to hit $17 billion by the end of the year. 

According to further estimates made in 2021, Valve had somewhere in the range of 336 employees, which puts the revenue per employee figure at over $50 million. For comparison, the same figure for Microsoft hovers at just around $1.1 million. Clearly, Valve has every right to flaunt its profitability per employee. The company's revenue has almost quadrupled since 2015, and there appears to be no signs of a slowdown just yet.