It was a record year for PC gaming and for Steam: A total of 13,971 games were newly released on Steam: But only very few games make big money, such as Baldur’s Gate 3 or Hogwarts Legacy.
How much money did new games earn on Steam? The site Venturebeat has published a large report on Steam:
- The total revenue from games on Steam (Full Game Sale Revenue) has doubled from $4.5 billion in 2019 to $9 billion in 2023. In 2023, revenue rose significantly again after a long pause, remaining almost constant between 2020 and 2022.
- Of these $9 billion, about $3 billion come from “new releases.” But almost all of this $3 billion goes to the 100 largest new games of a year: The Top 100 account for 91% of the revenue.
- The revenue distribution is even more pronounced: The Top 10 take 61% of the pie.
The Top 10 most successful new releases on Steam
What was the biggest game of the year? The biggest new game in 2023 on Steam was Baldur’s Gate 3. The role-playing epic earned approximately $657 million on Steam. That’s 21% of the revenue from new game releases.
The other games in the Top 10 were:
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Starfield
- Resident Evil 4
- Sons of the Forest
- Armored Core VI
- EA Sports FC 24
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- Lethal Company
- Cities Skylines 2
Purely based on units sold, Free2Play games like Overwatch 2, BattleBit Remastered, or The Finals also appear, but the core of the Top 10 does not change much.
Of 14,000 new games on Steam, only 5% earn more than $100,000
How many new games came to Steam? In 2023, nearly 14,000 new games were released. An increase of 13% compared to 2022.
However, only 181 of them were AAA or AA games, meaning games with high production values.
Free2Play games make up only a small part with 303 games.
This is how wide the gap between rich and poor is: Of the nearly 14,000 new games, only 700 (5%) reached more than $100,000 in revenue.
A game that has impressed alongside the “big hits” on Steam this year is presented here:
On Steam, I fight against huge monsters and make sushi from them
