Steam had a record breaking 2023, but Valve’s PC games storefront is increasingly becoming a “winner take all” marketplace according to Video Game Insights. The firm’s latest report shows that full game revenues grew 18% to $9 billion in 2023, doubling 2019’s total. Games released in 2023 accounted for $3 billion or a third of full games revenue last year.
However, the top 10 new releases captured about $1.85 billion of all full game revenues. These 10 titles account for 20% of all full game revenue on Steam in 2023 and 61% of all full game revenues from new releases. This proportion has grown 50% from 2019 where the top 10 new games captured 41% of new full game revenues.
Notably, Baldur’s Gate 3 was the biggest winner. Alone, the title earned an estimated $657 million in full game revenue or 21% of all revenue earned by 2023’s releases. All together, the top 100 new games accounted for 91% of full game revenue from 2023 releases.
Part of this concentrated success could be a result of the record-breaking number of games released on Steam. Nearly 14,000 games were launched on Steam in 2023, up 13% from the prior year. Only 181 (1.3%) of these releases were double-A or triple-A titles. Notably, only 309 new releases were free-to-play meaning most games are included in the tracked full game revenues.
Of these titles released on Steam in 2023, only a fraction earned significant revenue from full game sales. About 700 (5%) of 2023’s releases made over $100,000 in full game revenue.
This concentrated success isn’t limited to new releases. Zooming out to the full marketplace, 930 games made over $1 million in full game revenues. Breaking eight-figures is even more difficult with only 157 games taking home over $10 million in full game sales. Meanwhile, a truly elite group of 20 titles of sold over $50 million worth of units.
Video Game Insights 2024 outlook
While 2023 was a break out year for the most successful titles, Video Game Insights is projecting a slower 2024. The firm expects full game revenue to decline 2.5% to $8.8 billion due to a weaker release calendar, discounted console prices and downward pressure from subscriptions, giveaways and freemium titles.
However, the firm is still projecting 5% CAGR with full game revenue on Steam reaching $11.5 billion in 2028. This a result of Steam’s global growth, higher quality triple-A and indie releases and console ports to PC.
Total games sold follows a similar pattern. Video Game Insights expects a 2.5% reduction from 580 million units to 566 million in 2024. However, it projects an overall 1.8% CAGR through 2028 to reach 635 million games sold on Steam.
More detail including 2024’s most wishlisted games is available in Video Game Insights full report.