The Steam end-of-year evaluation all the time throws up some fascinating numbers, and with 2024’s stats now out, it prompts some fascinating reflections on how we sport, each individually and en masse. On a private stage, it seems I’ve performed about 50% fewer video games on Steam than final 12 months (I blame Game Pass, emulation, and my overpriced however completely charming Nintendo 3DS XL), whereas turn-based, stealth, and detective video games made up a giant a part of my 2024 jam.
But the actually fascinating stuff is on the macro scale, because it exhibits that Steam customers spent simply 15% of their whole enjoying time in video games that launched in 2024. 47% of the entire enjoying time on Steam was spent on video games launched within the final one to seven years, whereas a sizeable 37% of time was spent in video games which were out for eight years or extra.
So what can we make of all this? Are folks simply not shopping for new video games any extra? No, that is most likely not the case. In truth, that 15% is a big enhance over the 9% of playtime spent in 2023 on new video games launched that 12 months (although it is down on the 17% of time of us spent in new video games in 2022). So 2024 has really seen a little bit of a bounceback from final 12 months, presumably pushed by the recognition of recent on-line video games like Helldivers 2, Delta Force, and, uhhh, the free-to-play super-sensation that’s Banana. On the singleplayer entrance, simian action-adventure Black Myth: Wukong has led the cost with some eye-watering concurrent participant numbers on Steamcharts.
The present state of reside service video games might play its half in why the ‘time spent in new video games’ numbers aren’t greater. Service video games make up the overwhelming majority of Steam’s Most Played charts, with long-established titles like Counter-Strike, Dota 2, and PUBG ruling the roost for years. Meanwhile, as Ubisoft can attest with its Skull and Bones struggles and alarmingly abrupt closure of XDefiant, it is changing into more and more difficult and dangerous for a brand new reside service sport to interrupt by means of into the market. While there have been some breakouts like Marvel Rivals and Path of Exile 2, for probably the most half gamers stick religiously to the continued video games that they’ve already invested tons of money and time into.
Another issue is that Steam has over 200,000 titles as of at the moment, relationship again many years, which dwarfs the 18,000 or so launched in 2024 (as per SteamDB). Playing video games on Steam is successfully enjoying video games on PC, which covers everybody from old-timers revisiting their favorite cRPGs from the 90s, to the a whole lot of holdouts who preserve that Civilization 4 is one of the best one. With all that in thoughts, that 15% of enjoying time on video games launched in 2024 sounds about proper, even fairly spectacular!
