Simplified Chinese accounted for 22.52% of clients in Valve’s July 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, down 1.67 points in a month, while English rose to 39.61%. This piece covers the languages Steam can technically carry, the shares players actually select, published per-language costs, and how far AI has moved into localization workflows.
Game Localization Support: Key Numbers
How Many Languages Does Steam Support For Games?
Steam splits language handling into two tiers, and only one of them reaches the code. The Full Platform Support list covers the Steam client UI, store, Community and the Steamworks APIs.
Game Support Only languages exist purely as a store-page declaration. Valve states plainly that these are not supported in Steamworks APIs, so achievement strings and other API-served text cannot be returned in them.
| Support tier | Languages listed | What it reaches |
|---|---|---|
| Full Platform Support | 31 | Client UI, store, Community, Steamworks APIs |
| Game Support Only | 72 | Store page declaration only |
Source: Valve, Steamworks Documentation, Languages Supported on Steam, accessed August 2026
Arabic is the documented exception. Valve notes it is available for game depots and per-game language selection, but the Steam UI is not currently translated into Arabic and players cannot run Steam in it.
That quirk shows up in the survey data: Arabic and Malay both registered 0.00% of clients in July 2026. Developers sizing a PC release against these tiers can cross-check platform reach in these PC gaming statistics.
Which Languages Do Steam Players Select?
The Steam Hardware & Software Survey is opt-in and anonymous, so these shares describe participating clients in one month, not Steam’s installed base. English and Simplified Chinese together took the two top slots in July 2026, with Russian a distant third.
| Language | Share of clients | Change vs prior month |
|---|---|---|
| English | 39.61% | +1.43 |
| Simplified Chinese | 22.52% | -1.67 |
| Russian | 9.30% | -0.31 |
| Spanish – Spain | 4.91% | +0.32 |
| Portuguese-Brazil | 4.38% | +0.38 |
| German | 2.82% | +0.11 |
| Japanese | 2.43% | -0.21 |
| French | 2.33% | +0.07 |
| Polish | 1.74% | +0.07 |
| Korean | 1.45% | -0.03 |
Source: Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey, July 2026
The spread is the practical argument for tiered localization. Korean, the tenth entry, sits at 1.45% while Simplified Chinese sits at 22.52%, yet both carry the same per-language price tag.
Ranking below the top ten: Traditional Chinese at 1.33%, Turkish at 1.24%, Spanish – Latin America at 0.89% and Thai at 0.85%. Titles with heavy Chinese and Korean audiences, such as League of Legends and its regional player split, sit at the opposite end of that distribution from the Steam client average.
Game Localization Support Demand Swings Month To Month
February 2026 produced the sharpest reading in the series. English fell to 22.27%, down 14.74 points, while Simplified Chinese climbed to 54.60%, up 30.74 points.
GamingOnLinux, reporting the same Valve survey on 2 March 2026, wrote that the figures did not seem quite right for a single month and said Valve might adjust them. Valve has not published a correction for that month.
Source: Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey, February 2026 (via GamingOnLinux) and July 2026
What Does Game Localization Support Cost Per Language?
Public per-language pricing comes from vendor rate cards rather than industry-wide surveys, so the figures below are one provider’s published ranges. Transphere’s 2026 cost guide separates scope tiers rather than quoting a single rate.
| Cost item | Published 2026 range |
|---|---|
| Text-only mobile game, per language | $2,000 – $8,000 |
| Narrative RPG with voice acting, per language | $25,000 – $100,000+ |
| LQA testing, per hour | $40 – $80 |
| Linguistic review, per word | $0.04 – $0.08 |
Source: Transphere, Game Localization Costs guide (January 2026) and Game Localization QA guide (May 2026)
Transphere’s own worked example lands at $28,392 per language, or $170,352 across six languages, and the company stresses it is not a universal price. Set that flat per-language cost against the audience math above and the case for prioritising by share becomes arithmetic rather than opinion.
Game Localization Support Market Size In 2026
Nimdzi put the language industry at an estimated USD 72.6 billion in 2025 and projects USD 73.4 billion for 2026. Its realistic model forecasts a compound annual growth rate below 1.0% afterwards, reaching USD 76.1 billion by 2030.
| Metric | Figure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Language industry size (estimated) | USD 72.6 billion | 2025 |
| Language industry size (projected) | USD 73.4 billion | 2026 |
| Realistic forecast | USD 76.1 billion | 2030 |
| Top 100 providers, combined revenue | USD 14.3 billion | 2025 |
Source: Nimdzi Insights, The 2026 Nimdzi 100
Nimdzi names video games specifically as a vertical that slipped down its rankings, attributing the drop to rapid improvements in AI-powered localization alongside reduced international trade in physical goods. It also reports clients sometimes demanding cost cuts of up to 75% via AI.
Games work still anchors the top of the ranking. Keywords Studios placed fourth on 2025 revenue of USD 850.0 million (estimated), and Side placed tenth on USD 349.0 million (verified), the first woman-led company to reach the Nimdzi top ten.
Source: Nimdzi Insights, The 2026 Nimdzi 100, FY2025 revenues
How Much AI Sits In Game Localization Support Workflows?
Crowdin surveyed 152 B2B professionals across the US and Canada between January and February 2026, with gaming making up 12.5% of the sample. Roughly 95% already use AI or machine translation in some capacity, and about 18% apply it to every translation task.
Respondents could select several outcomes, so these shares overlap rather than sum. Speed outranks savings by a wide margin.
| Reported outcome since adopting AI | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| Faster releases and publishing | 73.0% |
| Better consistency | 65.8% |
| Reduced manual workload | 65.1% |
| Lower costs | 53.9% |
| More quality incidents or regressions | 20.4% |
Source: Crowdin, 2026 AI Translation Enterprise Survey, n=152, January-February 2026
Near-universal adoption has not removed the human layer. Glossary enforcement and human proofreading remain the two most common mandatory controls, and fewer than 1% of respondents said minimal or no quality controls were acceptable.
| Mandatory quality control | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| Glossary and terminology enforcement | 79.6% |
| Human proofreading / LQA | 75.7% |
| Translation Memory | 73.0% |
| Automated QA checks | 68.4% |
| Style guide and brand voice rules | 61.2% |
| In-context review | 56.6% |
Source: Crowdin, 2026 AI Translation Enterprise Survey, n=152, January-February 2026
One documented studio case: Wildlife Studios runs 27 localization projects across more than 12 languages, combining agency translators, in-house teams and quality coordinators with AI draft translation. Scale like that is common among live-service titles, as the regional splits in these Minecraft player statistics and World of Warcraft subscriber figures illustrate.
Developer Sentiment Lags Adoption
GDC’s 2026 State of the Game Industry, based on more than 2,300 responses, found 52% of professionals consider generative AI’s impact on the industry negative. That is up from 30% in the 2025 report and 18% in the 2024 report.
Only 7% called the impact positive, down from 13% a year earlier. Visual and technical art (64%), game design and narrative (63%) and game programming (59%) held the most unfavourable views.
Source: GDC Festival of Gaming, State of the Game Industry reports, 2024-2026 editions
Studios weighing which markets justify a full localization pass can compare these shares against platform revenue in this Steam platform breakdown and the wider totals in these video game statistics.
FAQs
How many languages does Steam support for games?
Steamworks lists 31 languages under Full Platform Support, which reach the client UI, store and Steamworks APIs, plus 72 under Game Support Only, which appear on the store page but get no API support.
What is the most used language on Steam in 2026?
English led Valve’s July 2026 Hardware and Software Survey at 39.61% of participating clients, up 1.43 points month over month. Simplified Chinese followed at 22.52%, down 1.67 points.
Why do Reddit threads say Chinese overtook English on Steam?
February 2026 recorded Simplified Chinese at 54.60% and English at 22.27%, which circulated widely. GamingOnLinux said the single-month figures did not look right and expected Valve might adjust them.
How much does game localization cost per language?
Transphere’s 2026 guide publishes $2,000 to $8,000 per language for text-only mobile titles and $25,000 to over $100,000 for narrative RPGs with voice acting. LQA runs $40 to $80 per hour.
Do localization teams on Reddit still use human reviewers with AI?
Crowdin’s 2026 survey, which drew on Reddit community discussions alongside 152 buyer responses, found 75.7% treat human proofreading or LQA as mandatory and 79.6% enforce glossary rules on output.
Sources
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/localization/languages
https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam
https://www.nimdzi.com/nimdzi-100-2026/
https://crowdin.com/blog/ai-translation-enterprise-survey-2026