Game releases are growing at an exponential rate. For six years in a row, Steam has seen the number of titles launching on its platform increase, with yearly releases more than doubling since 2020.
That release schedule has shown no sign of slowing down this year either—in fact, it's rapidly increased once again—and by the end of October, more games will have been released in 2026 than in 2025.
I'm reluctant to say game development is getting easier for a pair of reasons: 1. I'm not a game developer and 2. We've seen the struggles that major studios have faced over the last few years, often resulting in game cancellations, staff layoffs, and even studio closures. The rise of smaller indie games, particularly in the "friendslop" genre, plus tools like generative AI (boooo), have, however, likely contributed to the number of games being released—and it's only growing.
According to SteamDB, 2025 saw 21,268 games released on the Valve-owned platform. That was up almost 3,000 from 2024, which saw 18,452 games released. 2024 was up over 4,000 from 2023, which was up almost 2,000 from 2022. You see a pattern developing.
2026 is set to be another bumper year, and...
