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Over 5,000 games released on Steam this year didn't make enough money to recover the $100 fee to put a game on Valve's store, research estimates (www.gamesradar.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by cm0002@lemmy.zip to c/steam@programming.dev

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Don't bother sitting down because you'll just stand up when you hear this: a ton of games were released on Steam this year. Valve's store has seen nearly 13,000 game launches since January 1, 2025, according to Steam data hound Gamalytic, and a majority of those games went straight under the couch to be forgotten for the rest of time like lost batteries.

Gamalytic regularly updates its data but these particular milestones and thresholds were recently flagged on social media by Artur Smiarowski, creator of turn-based roguelike RPG Soulash and its markedly more popular sequel Soulash 2. As of today, Steam has seen an estimated 12,732 games released in 2025.

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[–] TheAgeOfSuperboredom@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

That's not even a lot of money, and it at least creates a small barrier of entry. And there's still a lot of crap in Steam.

I see a lot if indies talking about their game development on other platforms, so hopefully by the time they list they already have an audience and can handle the fee.

But if a game is just low effort shovelware they deserve to lose it.