Over a third of games released on Steam this year might not have even made enough money to break even on Valve's submission fee, according to Steam analytics site .
As reported by , Gamalytic estimates that almost 13,000 new entries have hit Steam since the beginning of this year, highlighted by Soulash developer Artur Smiarowski over . While it's not quite as many as 2024's total releases yet—last year saw a whopping 18,000 games come out—it's almost on par with 2023's 13,179 releases with a few months still to go.
Over 13,000 games have been released on Steam this year so far.8% of the releases are estimated to have grossed over $100k.40% didn't see a return on their $100 release cost.We might have reached the peak of the indie gold rush last year. pic.twitter.com/QWejYdsyXn
An unfortunate side effect of a crap ton of new videogames is that a large chunk will, inevitably, fall to the wayside. So many, in fact, that Smiarowski's post goes on to declare that roughly 40% of 2025 Steam games didn't even make enough money ($1,000) to recoup the $100 submission fee developers or publishers have to pay to get the game on [[link]] Steam in the first place.
Smiarowski also highlights that around 8% of this year's Steam games——managed to gross over $100,000, a percentage he highlights as being pretty par for the course over the years. Considering 2025 is shaping up to be [[link]] the second-biggest year of this decade in terms of raw release numbers, that means "more developers found success each year thus far."
As GamesRadar points out, Gamalytic's methodology isn't 100% accurate by the site's own admission, thanks to Steam keeping a relatively tight lid on a lot of its data. The less popular a game is, the less accurate estimations Gamalytic has for it. It's still an interesting overall glimpse at the state of [[link]] things though, and the somewhat depressing (if not all that surprising) revelation that it's freaking hard to get your videogame noticed in an ever-enlarging crowd.
Here's a list of bottom 70 or so with up to $10 price tag. pic.twitter.com/OH5sttzK8f
Smiarowski also "with up to $10 price tag," so naturally I went poking through a few different store pages to see what we're all missing out on. I was largely expecting to see a heap of Vampire Survivors clones and deckbuilders—and trust me, they're there—but I was surprised at what a rich variety was lurking at the bottom of Valve's pile.
Puzzlers, 2D platformers, cel-shaded cyberpunk motorbike brawlers. Stuff that, with better visibility, might have had a shot. Perhaps not the one titled Femdom Tower Defence, though.