Recent documents leaked from the ongoing legal dispute between Valve and Wolfire Games shed light on the company’s remarkable profitability. According to Kristian Miller, a data scientist for Valve, the firm generates a staggering $3.5 million profit per employee, which places it ahead of tech heavyweights like Facebook, which reports around $780,000, and Apple, with about $476,160 per employee.

The Financial Times initially uncovered these figures, including Steam’s commission revenue, which has skyrocketed from approximately $100 million in 2009 to an astonishing $2 billion by 2021. The gross profit margin for Valve has similarly surged, climbing from 30% to nearly 60%.

With 336 employees in 2021, this profit translates into an operating profit of around $1.2 billion generated solely from the Steam platform. Comparatively, Valve’s chief profit number dwarfs that of Facebook by a substantial margin, highlighting the significant financial success of Valve’s business model. This trend suggests that Valve’s capacity for generating high profits per employee stands as a notable achievement in the gaming industry.