A record-breaking 19,003 games were released on Steam in 2024 - up from 14,309 in 2023. Game release competition continues ballooning year-on-year, with fewer than 500 released back in 2013. (Read more: Gaming on Linux) - ThreadSky

toadsanime.lostincult.co.uk • 62 days ago

A record-breaking 19,003 games were released on Steam in 2024 - up from 14,309 in 2023.

Game release competition continues ballooning year-on-year, with fewer than 500 released back in 2013.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/01/valve-saw-a-record-breaking-nearly-19-000-games-released-on-steam-in-2024/

Comments

schenksmill.bsky.social•62 days ago

A decade or so ago working in an indie and having to get through Steam Greenlight was a nightmare but now it seems like a better option than THIS. The wall of crap you have to get through to get eyes on your game is miserable.

somehumbleonion.bsky.social•62 days ago

19k games... good god man 😭

toadsanime.lostincult.co.uk•62 days ago

yuuuup 😭 gives significantly, noticeably harder for indies, every year.

austofrosto.bsky.social•62 days ago

less than 500 in 2013?!? jesus

toadsanime.lostincult.co.uk•62 days ago

It's scary how rapidly the entire landscape has totally transformed. 😭

austofrosto.bsky.social•62 days ago

send me back

darkbluemonkey.bsky.social•62 days ago

Imagine if all those developers worked together on one single uber-game.... Each one doing one small part of a connected universe... Some making planets, others making buildings. Some making stories..... All that manpower focused into a single experience :)

olivi-eh.dev•61 days ago

More devs doesn't mean you can necessarily get more or faster things done. In fact, it often works against the product (there are more layers of communications, more complexity in the org chart, more room for miscommunications, more bureaucracy, etc.)

olivi-eh.dev•61 days ago

The Mythical Man-Month covers this topic, if you're interested in reading about these phenomenons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

darkbluemonkey.bsky.social•61 days ago

I would hope that, as a rule, over eleven million developers might /juuuuuuust/ be able to squeeze in a SMIDGE more functionality into a game than a few hundred. I know it's a tall order, and I know decades-old book might say otherwise, but I think we can just about manage ONE more feature. ;-)

darkbluemonkey.bsky.social•62 days ago

I feel the need to dig out this chestnut :)

daveyblahblah.bsky.social•62 days ago

I whisper this but...is this partly why the industry is collapsing? Something like a 40% increase in new releases but I've had a 0% increase in free time to play them.

toadsanime.lostincult.co.uk•62 days ago

Very multi-faceted, but yes, it's one of the issues impacting indie industry specifically (just one of, mind). Even excluding the shovelware nonsense, there are too many quality indie games releasing, and they can't all succeed.

ptibz.younghorses.com•62 days ago

Over saturation doesn’t help discoverability for sure but like the article mentions, most of those games are likely not quality releases many played would have played. And back in 2013 when fewer games released many of those would not have been approved to sell on Steam at all.

ptibz.younghorses.com•62 days ago

Many people **

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