Mid-2024 Steam Overview: Key Takeaways

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As the first half of 2024 comes to an end, GameDiscoverCo has analyzed Steam’s performance over the past six months, offering insight into market trends, top-earning games, and the evolving state of the PC gaming industry.

Based on data and algorithmic insights from Strale at Gamalytic and GameDiscoverCo, the following trends emerged:

Top-Grossing Titles:
Seven newly released 2024 games have each earned over $40 million, with Helldivers 2 leading at approximately $450 million. Palworld follows closely at around $375 million. Other major titles, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Enshrouded, Tekken 8, and Manor Lords, each brought in between $40 and $60 million.

Strong Valve Performance:
Valve’s own titles continue to dominate, with Counter-Strike 2 estimated at $610 million and DOTA 2 around $120 million in the first half of the year, especially notable since Valve doesn’t pay platform fees.

Paid Games With IAP:
Less than half of the Top 20 games are free-to-play. Many successful titles utilize a paid model supplemented by in-app purchases or DLC, such as Call of Duty HQ and Elden Ring.

New games accounted for about 15% of revenue in the $500k–$5M range, but represented a stronger share in higher brackets:

• 37% of all games earning between $25M–$50M were new releases
• 33% of games earning above $50M were also new titles

Growth in Titles Reaching Major Revenue Milestones:

• A 20% increase in games earning $500k–$1M compared to H1 2023
• A 15% increase in games earning $5M–$10M

However, Steam also saw a 22% increase in total titles, from ~75,500 in mid-2023 to ~92,000 in mid-2024. This expansion suggests that while overall spending on PC games is growing, much of it continues to concentrate on the “long tail” of past hit titles.