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A comment on Apple loses UK App Store monopoly case, penalty might near $2B. Parent comment

Re:Apple loses UK App Store monopoly case, penalty might nea... by npinsker on Thursday October 23, 2025 @07:40PM (#45688904)
Steam's cut decreases to 20% after a certain amount of money. Also Steam does a lot more to earn their cut than any other platform, by far -- for example, they do a lot of promotion for you, both algorithmic and through things like Daily Deals, for free, whereas on iOS it is very difficult for ad spend to not be a significant part of your budget. The rule of thumb I've heard is, for every organic sale you make, Steam's algorithm will get you one more sale. So their cut feels quite worth it.

A closer example is game consoles, whose associated stores also take 30%, and nobody seems to complain about.

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Re:Apple loses UK App Store monopoly case, penalty might nea... by raincole on Thursday October 23, 2025 @07:48PM (#45688980)
> for every organic sale you make, Steam's algorithm will get you one more sale

I'm not sure what you mean. Every game dev now refers what Steam algorithm gives you "organic sale."

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Re:Apple loses UK App Store monopoly case, penalty might nea... by npinsker on Thursday October 23, 2025 @08:42PM (#45689385)
Maybe my wording wasn't good -- I meant a sale driven primarily through a channel other than Steam (streamer, Reddit, ads, friend recommendation).

It's difficult for me to really trust this stat though because purchasing decisions are complicated.

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