It would appear that Steam has begun to see user count decline recently. While the downward trend is typical for this time of year, the numbers are seeing a larger drop than usual. In fact, the Steam user count has seen its biggest decline in years.

The digital marketplace generally sees user count drop in the summer, likely due to vacations, people leaving their houses more, etc., while the peak comes at the beginning of the year. To be fair, overall user count is up from last year. July 2017 saw a peak of 14,073,632, while this July witnessed over 2 million more users with a peak of 16,358,317. That said, the decline into this summer has been worse than in previous years.

Sergey Galyonkin, creator of Steam Spy, recently posted the graph to Twitter that shows us the decline in users. They pointed out that this year has seen a 17% drop versus last year’s 9%. As stated above, it’s typical to user count go down over the first half (or so) of the year, and eventually rise back up to peak in January. However, what could have caused such a large drop in 2018?

It’s entirely possible that Fortnite is not only taking over the rest of the world, but also pulling users from Steam. Since the title isn’t available on the digital marketplace and uses Epic’s launcher, it’s not completely out of the question that it could be part of the blame. SuperData Research provided a bit of insight surrounding the possibility, stating that Fortnite is potentially cannibalizing other franchises through players and viewers across streaming services.

There’s no telling exactly what is causing the biggest drop in user count in the past three years, but we’re sure Steam will see its usual climb in the latter half of 2018. Keep it tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers as this story develops, and for other gaming goodness going on right now, check out the following:

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What say you, gamers? Do you believe Fortnite is to blame for the drop in Steam users? Is there another reason for the decline? Sound off in the comments section below, and be sure to follow DFTG on Twitter for live gaming and entertainment news 24/7!