this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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Technically Steam is not a monopoly, but the way people commonly use the term these days is as simple as "majority market share".
Treat customers right and you get rewarded. They are the majority market shareholder because they have earned it, not through deceptive business practices but through being a great company.
If they were a monopoly they wouldn't allow other game catalogs on their systems, yet I have GOG and Epic on my Steam Deck. In fact, there isn't even a requirement for me to have Steam on my Steam Deck. Just because a company is the market leader doesn't mean they got there through unethical means.
You are equating "monopoly" with "abusive monopoly."
Google got its monopoly in internet search by being better than the competition. It's still a monopoly, even though it mostly plays by the rules.
No, Google pays off other browsers to use Google as the default search engine, among many other actual monopolistic practices. Steam does none of that and simply provides a product.
No, I'm not. I'm saying they aren't a monopoly by the simple fact that they aren't the only providers of the service they sell. And while they are currently in a position to use their power to make themselves a monopoly, they are not doing that and instead are playing fair with their competition.