Valve, despite being one of the most successful and influential game companies, keeps a shroud of mystery surrounding its operations. Information regarding Valve, ranging from revenue to employee numbers and ongoing game projects, remains elusive. This is due to Valve not being a publicly traded company like other big players in the gaming industry, thus exempting them from the obligation of disclosing such information.
However, recently, Pavel Djundik, the creator of SteamDB, uncovered some intriguing details in the legal battle between Valve and indie game company Wolfire Games that has been ongoing since 2021. The court documents revealed employee data of Valve from 2013-2021, shedding light on the workforce of the company. As of the latest update in 2021, Valve reportedly had 336 employees, a smaller number compared to other prominent game companies with thousands of employees.
Valve’s workforce is divided into four categories as of 2021:
– Admin: 35 employees
– Games: 181 employees
– Steam: 79 employees
– Hardware: 41 employees
Analyzing the fluctuations in employee numbers over the years, the game development department saw a significant increase, reaching nearly 200 employees in 2010, peaking at 201 employees in 2019, before slightly decreasing to 181 employees in 2021. Conversely, the Steam department had its peak at 142 employees in 2015, gradually decreasing to 79 employees in 2021, almost halving its workforce. Meanwhile, the hardware division of Valve witnessed a slow increase in employee count, reaching a peak of 47 employees in 2018-2019, then decreasing to 31 employees in 2020, and bouncing back to 41 employees in 2021.
TLDR: Valve’s workforce information was revealed through a legal case, showing an employee count of 336 in 2021 across different departments, with fluctuations in numbers over the years.
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