GameDiscoverCo: Competition landscape for new games on Consoles and Steam | sponsored by Neon
Steam is the main discovery driver while PlayStation is statistically the best platform for new game launches.
DAU Distribution on consoles and Steam
On PlayStation, the top game by DAU (Fortnite) accounts for 14.3% of the platform’s total DAU.
The top 5 projects make up 43% of total DAU; the top 50—76.7%; the top 100—84.2%.
The situation on Xbox is a bit better. Fortnite (again the top game) takes up 9.8% of the platform’s total DAU.
The top 5 projects have 35.5% DAU; the top 50—67.3%; the top 100—76%. It’s possible that Game Pass helps people discover more projects.
On Steam, the top game by DAU (Counter-Strike 2) has 10.7% of the platform’s total DAU.
But the top 5 have 26.7%, and the top 50 projects—50%. The top 100 projects have 59.9% DAU.
The chart shows that PlayStation is the most consolidated platform in terms of audience. Users are concentrated around the same projects. The Steam audience, on the other hand, is more diversified across projects.
❗️Simon correctly notes that for many projects, DAU is not a key metric. In particular, for premium products, this metric is less important.
If you look at DAU distribution, Steam is the platform where it’s easiest to get user attention.
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Successful Launches of New IPs on Different Platforms
Sales estimates by GameDiscoverCo. Nintendo Switch physical copies sales are not included.
In 2024, 1,115 games were released on Xbox, of which 29 (2.6%) crossed the 100,000 copies sold mark. Only 8 games (0.72%) are new IPs.
Of the 1,292 games released on PlayStation in 2024, 63 (4.88%) sold more than 100,000 copies. 18 (1.39%) are new original projects.
On Nintendo Switch in 2024, 2,898 new games were released, 36 (1.24%) sold over 100,000 copies. And only 15 (0.52%) are new IPs.
And finally, Steam. Of 19,003 new games, 233 surpassed 100,000 copies sold (1.23% of the total). 147 of them (0.77%) are new original projects.
In absolute numbers, Steam is the clear leader in the number of projects that reached 100,000 copies sold in the first year. The platform also leads in the number of new IPs that hit this mark.
But if you look at relative numbers, the highest chance of success, surprisingly, is on PlayStation. Statistically, that’s the case, but in reality, Steam is the main platform for new successful games thanks to its algorithmic featuring system. Steam has a very low entry barrier for new developers (unlike consoles), and 75% of projects don’t even have 50 reviews, which affects the data.
The GameDiscoverCo team also compiled a list of projects that made it into the list of successful new IPs on consoles—Animal Well, Another Crab's Treasure, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Grounded, Hypercharge: Unboxed, Little Kitty Big City, Metaphor: Refantazio, Phasmophobia, Rise Of The Ronin, Sker Ritual, Stellar Blade, Stray, Undisputed, Unicorn Overlord, V Rising.