Bragging isn’t exactly what we’d call noble, but gamers have done it since even before multiplayer was a thing. No wonder then, that big companies like Steam love to hear a good bragging story, especially since there’s no shortage of ways for players to show off on the platform.
Starting trading cards over achievements and even your own profile being nothing more than a big show-off, Steam has now entered a new era. Global leaderboards are now tied directly to achievement badges, and a crazy Steam collector has achieved something unthinkable.
Steam User Owns 40,000 Games
According to SteamDB and community trackers, SonixLegend’s collection technically includes over 97,000 titles, though only 40,000 of them qualify toward the achievement.
That’s still a staggering number, especially when you consider that the average user owns fewer than 50 games.
Steam, who launched their annual Boomstock sale this week, only publish around 19,000 titles per-year.
That number is made all the more inconceivable when you consider the financial toll.
At today’s prices, their collection would be valued at – get ready for it – over $640,000 if refunded all at once. To put that into perspective, that’s the cost of a house in some markets, and more than enough to make Gabe Newell blush.
And yet, despite owning more games than most people could ever dream of, SonixLegend’s personal favorite is still Alien Swarm – a free-to-play co-op shooter from 2010.
They’ve clocked over 550 hours into it, which is peanuts compared to the time it would take to clear their entire library. Polygon estimated it would take more than seven years of non-stop gaming to even attempt that.
Are There More Achievement Hunters to Come?
The new badge is part of Valve’s updated achievement and leaderboard push, giving collectors, completionists, and digital hoarders new ways to show off. While many users chase elusive 0.1% unlocks in their favorite games, SonixLegend’s feat is proof that some players are just wired differently.
Owning 40,000 games doesn’t just highlight personal obsession, it also shows the strange economics of digital storefronts, especially Steam.
Between bundles, shovelware, and deep discounts, it’s possible to amass huge libraries without spending quite as much as sticker prices suggest. Still, it’s a reminder that Steam culture is built not only on playing games, but on owning them, even if they’ll never all be touched.
