How to Market a Game: The number of Games Released on Steam in the first 3 quarters of 2024 is significantly higher compared to 2023
More games are being released on Steam, which means that the competition has intensified too.
According to Chris Zukowski’s methodology, projects with over 1,000 reviews on Steam can be considered successful.
With three months left in the year, 13,065 games have already been released in 2024, only 870 fewer than in 2023. If the trend continues, the total number of games on the market by the end of 2024 will increase by 28.92% compared to 2023.
As of October 1, 2024, 348 games have surpassed 1,000 reviews, 267 of which are considered indie projects.
In 2023, 415 indie titles crossed the 1,000-review mark. So far, the likelihood of success has decreased when comparing the number of “successful” projects to the total number of games released.
49.8% of games received fewer than 10 reviews. 78.5% have fewer than 50 reviews, likely meaning sales of less than 1,500 copies.
In 2024, the number of projects achieving some level of success (50+ reviews) is higher.
36 games released in Q1-Q2’24 reached the 1,000-review mark in Q3’24. Generally, the first month sets the sales trend, but among these “late-blooming” successes, most are horror games, followed by simulators and hidden object games.
❗️Chris notes that if you’ve gathered a large number of wishlists but they didn’t convert to sales at launch, there’s a high chance that commercial success isn’t likely. Similarly, for projects with low initial sales and few wishlists, success is also unlikely.