PalmDesert is something of a legend on Steam. His Steam level just hit 600, making it the highest ever.
It’s so high, in fact, that Valve hasn’t even made a special graphic for it yet. Right now, it’s just a plain old number, not unlike what a new Steam user would have. His closest competitor? A user named The Stranger, whose level is a comparatively paltry 528. The two of them included, there are only five people on Earth whose Steam levels have exceeded 500.
A person’s Steam level stems from experience points collected by owning games, participating in events, and crafting Steam badges from trading cards that come from games. It can be an expensive habit, something Steam’s more cynical users think Valve was banking on when they designed the system. In turn, higher Steam levels earn you things like friend slots and the ability to showcase things (items, favourite games, achievements, etc) on your profile. It also ups your chances of getting things like coupons.
PalmDesert’s profile is bristling with showcases, but it’s sparse of details, not unlike a uh, um… oh well, I guess there’s no word for it. Basically, though, he’s a dude from Japan who likes music, horror movies, and of course, video games. He likes video games a lot. As of now, he has over 3000 games in his profile. The total value of his account — badges, items, and the like included — comes out to $US34,180, according to SteamDB’s estimates. He also has tons of friends, many of whom are congratulating him on once again pushing the Steam level system to new heights.
PalmDesert’s status as Steam-est Steam user is hardly new. He’s been either on top of the Steam level ladder or close to it since very close to the Steam level system’s inception in 2013, which is pretty astounding. Maybe one day he’ll fall from the top of the mountain, but right now he’s head and shoulders (and maybe a second mountain resting beneath the first one and definitely a palm tree) above the rest.
Comments
18 responses to “The Guy With The Highest Steam Level”
While he probably gets a lot of trading cards donated from people who want to help him level, he has to have invested a ton of money into what is effectively a meaningless number. If that’s his hobby and how he wants to spend his time and money, power to him, but I can’t help but see it as a huge waste.
At least with achievement points in games, the points may be worthless but they represent challenges that you overcame. Steam level has none of that, aside from card trades between friends it’s just who spent the most money to make a number go up. Purchased fame always seems to be the flimsiest.
Its not as meaningless as you think… Each 10 lvls gets you a higher chance for booster pack drops. So, the higher you are, the more you will get to keep going higher.
Booster packs that give you cards whose sole function is to raise your or someone else’s level. You might say he could sell the cards he gets, but even at his level (12x chance), he might get 6 boosters a month at best? Average card value after Steam’s cut is 4 cents. He’s looking at maybe recovering 72 cents a month. A little over $8 a year, and that’s really best case scenario because he’s not going to get 6 boosters a month, the booster rate has been slower than that for a long time.
So he’s spent tens of thousands of dollars on games and who knows how much more on card purchased from the market to get a big number and maybe the chance to get one indie game a year for free. To me, that’s close enough to meaningless to be effectively the same.
Who knows? Maybe this ‘dude from Japan’ is actually a syndicate of people sharing an account?
This is capped after level 50 I thought?
$100,000 isn’t much if you make that in a day…
Rich people don’t tend to get rich because they’re foolish with their money.
Go and do some reading on Chinese billionaire gamblers.
I’m well aware there are people out there who do that. They don’t tend to last long. First generation rich are the ones that make their money and they don’t take risks. Second generation rich take plenty of risks and crash and burn before long because they don’t know how to make money.
AHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAA! You have no idea…
See my response to kato above.
Just checked my own details on SteamDB and found I’m sitting at 44% of my games unplayed. I don’t ever want to see this site again.
I see your 44% and raise you 56%
Get disappointing in your life TM; seems appropriate.
I’ll raise you with 67%! I actually know it’s a lot higher than that (more like high 80%), but I used a program to idle the games with trading cards.
Looking at the 600 guy’s activity profile, he seems to have done the same thing. More than 3000 titles, less than 100 with more than 6 hours of play and a whole lot in the 2.5 to 5 hour range, right about what you’d need to unlock their cards.
69%, FML. And that’s counting those games I launched for a minute or so.
Jigga please.
63%
196 owned – 123 not played
78% Unplayed of 384 games