2024 is sort of over. Despite a dismal year for the video game industry and its corresponding media, a glimmer of hope emerges in the form of numerous top-notch games released, allowing us to revisit raw data about our beloved hobby?
Properly, no less than Steam is concerned. Given the overwhelming presence of Valve’s Steam platform on PC, this assessment is surprisingly accurate.
According to Steam information aggregator SteamDB, a website widely utilized for tracking the performance of new game releases, including comparing player numbers with predecessors, has published its year-end results.
Here is the rewritten text:
The Steam Stats webpage offers a brief, comprehensive overview of recreational releases on Steam for 2024. According to SteamDB, this year has seen the launch of 18,949 new video games on Steam, significantly surpassing last year’s total of 14,310. While there’s an exception, the number of new video games released each year has consistently outpaced the previous year’s total.
While soaring numbers between 2023 and 2024 may be significant, they still pose a challenge in terms of sustainability; without addressing litter and discoverability issues, these trends are unlikely to persist beyond 2025. In reality, these statistics encompass a broad spectrum of releases from last year, including complimentary video games, innovative experiments, humorous prototypes, student-led projects, and even obscure titles that may have flown under the radar.
Among the approximately 19,000 newly released video games, only 3,973 titles are popular enough to integrate their Steam profiles with customizable features such as collectible Trading Cards, emoticons, and personalization items? Their entire life path may hinge on the trajectory of their gaming experiences alone.
Amongst the multitude of games released on Valve’s platform in 2024, only around 3,973 managed to capture the attention of gamers sufficient enough for Valve to grant them access to these extended features, a paltry 20% of the total number of titles launched that year. The promising trend continues to grow annually, indicating a slight but significant increase in audience capacity for fresh content.
