Steam He is going through his most prolific moment, and the statistics support it. In 2023, Valve’s platform once again broke its record for the number of games released in the course of a year. And the first numbers for 2024 remain very promising.
According to SteamDB, In 2023, 14,535 games were released on Steam. This implies a growth of 15.1% compared to 2022, which held the previous record with 12,562 titles published.
This shows the impressive growth that Steam has experienced over the last decade. To put it in context, in 2013 only 435 games had been added to their catalog. This means that annual launches have increased by over 3,200%. A true bestiality.
Besides, The year-on-year number of launches has almost always remained on the rise. The only exception was in 2019, when 8,134 new games were added to Steam, a drop of 8.55% compared to 8,900 in 2018. However, since then the growth has been brutal.
In 2020, Steam released 9,746 games, while in 2021 there were 11,389. Meanwhile, as we previously indicated, in 2022 12,562 titles were added to the catalog and in 2023 the new record of 14,535 was recorded.
Steam new release statistics have been very even throughout 2023, with more than 1,000 games added to the catalog every month. The last time Valve’s platform released fewer than 1,000 titles in a month occurred in June 2022, when 927 were added.
Steam continues to break records and expectations for 2024 are very high
With 2023 being Steam’s new record year for game releases, the trend for 2024 is very optimistic. The thing is, according to SteamDB records, in the first 4 days of January, 86 titles have already been published on the Valve platform.
It is true that the year has just begun and that it is impossible to do futurology. However, some predictions for the current calendar are quite bold. According to VGCif Steam maintains this pace, by the end of the year it could double the record figure of 2023. Releasing almost 29,000 video games seems like a fairly ambitious number, but we will have to wait to see if the trend is sustained (and accelerates) over time. the weeks.
Yes indeed, quantity does not equal quality. The aforementioned media indicates that there are two big reasons for the infernal growth of the Steam catalog registered from 2020 onwards. First, video game developers have easier access to the tools necessary for their development. Second, Valve has made the guidelines for approving titles more flexible.
It is clear that the more than 14,000 video games that were released in 2023 are not AAA – top level – nor do they belong to large studios or publishers. And while the independent sector has become truly prolific in offering excellent quality games, many other titles coming to Steam They are just plain bad. One of the most notable cases of the last year was The Day Beforewhose launch was disastrous and sparked accusations of fraud.
We’ll see how this story progresses. For now, Steam turns a deaf ear to the criticism and celebrates the brutal expansion in its offer of games for PC, macOS, Linux, Steam Deck and other portable consoles with Windows.