Thanks to a new client update, instead of seeing games that are currently popular, users on Steam will now see titles which are similar to those that they have purchased, along with tailor-made recommendations.
Before the age of Steam, updates to games like Counter-Strike could take days to complete, simply due to the large volume of users attempting to download content from the same mirrors. When Steam was launched in September of 2003 everything changed, as users were now able to receive automatic updates to all of their games through the Steam client.
Valve would continue to expand the Steam platform, offering digital versions of the latest games to its users, while also giving them the ability to develop and sell their own games through the Greenlight program. This, coupled with the company's commitment to updating the client regularly based on user feedback, has lead to the platform having over 90 million monthly users as of January 2019.
The platform isn't without its problems though, as many gamers have complained in the past about the fact that only popular games are featured on the Steam store's front-page. In response, Valve has released a new update which populates users' homepages with game titles that are similar to their prior purchases while also providing some recommendations.
With the recent issues surrounding the Steam wishlist, it's clear from this update that Valve wanted to repair its relationship with consumers. If the company continues to listen to consumer feedback and adds more filter elements to the Steam store in the future, we could see sales skyrocket on the platform as a result.
News on the latest steam update comes from VG24/7 who goes on to say that the recent change was done to make homepage recommendations more precise from one user to another. Additionally, they go on to report that Valve tested the new features with five percent of its userbase prior to making it available to the general public, in order to ensure that the newly implemented changes would work as intended. Valve discussed various issues related to the previous system and indicated that the new changes caused users to click on recommended titles fifteen percent more often than they had in the past. The company also reported that it saw an increase in the number of unique titles viewed and overall sales on the platform.
With the recent influx of digital platforms, it's a good sign that Valve is continuing to innovate and set itself apart. By including digital media such as anime, Valve is allowing its platform to be something greater than a simple game launcher, and that should have consumers the world over very excited.