On Steam, a game is released approximately every half hour. Yet almost half of them have fewer than 10 reviews. This also affects the visibility of titles in the Steam shop.
Those logging into Steam today are overwhelmed by a plethora of games. Everyone can choose from thousands of games, and the number is growing daily. According to the platform SteamDB, which analyzes data from Steam, more than 19,000 games are expected to be released in 2025. In comparison, a similarly large number was released in 2024, reports the English-language magazine PCGamer.
However, a large portion of the games has hardly been rated by anyone and therefore has had very few buyers and players.
What do the numbers look like? According to SteamDB the current release numbers on Steam are as follows:
- In 2025, 19,112 games have been released so far according to the database. By now, the numbers should have slightly increased, as a new game is released on average every half hour.
- 9,327 of those games have received fewer than 10 reviews on Steam, which is approximately 48.8% of all games.
- Of this share, 2,229 games have not been rated even once.
Visibility is important for small developers
Not every game is as well-known as an Anno, a Resident Evil, or a Diablo 4, to make a big advertisement for its release. Many developers rely on Steam, for instance with discovery lists, curators, or prominent placement on the homepage.
Particularly the “New and Trending” category on Steam is important for small developers and publishers that do not have a large advertising budget to draw attention to themselves. How vital this category is became evident with the release of an indie title: here Steam messed up the release of the game and deprived the developer of important revenue.
But not every one of the 19,000 new games is necessarily worth playing. There has been criticism of Steam for a long time that much junk is published on the platform that is not carefully curated by Steam itself. For example, cheap mobile games, which can now be found in abundance on Steam.
Another problem is the Steam reviews, which many players find not informative enough. A player has now suggested that players on Steam must indicate their hardware. And this demand is getting a lot of support. However, some also warn that this could expose some users: Users demand to publicly shame players with poor PC hardware on Steam
