Despite its price, Valve reportedly sells up to 15,000 Steam Machines a week

Credit: Valve Published Jul 20, 2026, 3:24 AM EDT Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech. Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics. Sign in to your XDA account Summary 1) Valve is selling an estimated 12–15K Steam Machines per week despite steep launch price. 2) It's a niche, hobbyist device—unlikely to topple consoles like Nintendo or PlayStation. 3) SteamOS may outlast the hardware; vendors already sell PCs preloaded with it. When the Steam Machine's price was announced, the gaming scene had a collective groan as everyone's fears that it'd breach the four-figure mark came true. However, that seemingly didn't stop people buying one, as Boiling Steam has estimated that around 12,000 to 15,000 units are selling per week. Valve is selling between 12,000 and 15,000 Steam Machines a week, claims Boiling Steam A good showing, if it's accurate Credit: Valve Boiling Steam posted an article estimating how many Steam Machines Valve has sold. Valve has never officially confirmed how many units it's shifted, but Boiling Steam used some measurable metrics to calculate a rough estimate. It did this by looking at where the Steam Machine sat at the Top Sellers spot and calculated a bounding box based on how the games above and below it were performing. After doing some napkin math, Boiling Steam deduced that Valve is selling between 12,000 and 15,000 Steam Machines a week. Boiling Steam notes that the Steam Machine won't be taking down the big names like Nintendo or PlayStation, but as a hobbyist device, it seems to be fitting the bill very well: Right now, it’s not shaping to be a market failure, but rather a niche device. Realistically speaking, the demand is probably going to slow down naturally - it would not be surprising to see 20% or 30% less volume shipped per week after the initial launch period. Fortunately, even if the Steam Machine doesn't prove to be a huge hit, it shouldn't be all bad news. The software that keeps the console running, SteamOS, has a very good chance of outlasting the hardware to become a revolutionary gaming PC operating system. In fact, people are already selling PCs pre-loaded with SteamOS.