Summary
- A total of 14,532 Steam games were released in 2023, marking a significant increase from the previous year.
- Despite including high-profile releases like Baldur's Gate 3, the quality of games on Steam varied due to a more relaxed curation approach.
- With over 110 titles already released in 2024, Steam is set to maintain its steady pace of game releases throughout the year.
A record-breaking 14,532 titles were released on Steam in 2023, according to sources that kept track throughout the year. From award winners such as Baldur's Gate 3 and Sea of Stars to dubious titles including The Day Before, the staggering number of Steam titles released on the platform in 2023 continued an upward trend for Valve.
2023 also was memorable for Steam, as it celebrated its 20th year of service as a storefront. Throughout the year, numerous sales were held, with the 2023 Steam Winter Sale concluding at the time of writing. To close a momentous year, a Steam beta client build gave users some more privacy control over their games and achievements, as it was one of the most requested features in the service's history. Though Steam is far removed from its humble beginnings as a launcher for Counter-Strike, Valve's platform is showing no signs of slowing down. With 2024 underway, a look back at how big Steam has grown was observed.
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According to figures logged by SteamDB, 14,532 Steam games were released in 2023, which is an increase of nearly 2,000 from 2022. By comparison, 2022 saw 12,561 games released on Valve's PC platform, and the growth continued a trend that spanned back as far as 2019. The only time Steam saw a major tip in releases was between 2018 and 2019, with 8,900 and 8,134 respective releases. Though the 14,532 games were headlined by releases, including Baldur's Gate 3, Steam's 2023 releases varied in quality. This was due to the platform allowing more use of game development tools and Valve taking a more relaxed approach to curating Steam's available releases.
Steam Release Numbers From 2019 to 2023
- 2019: 8,134
- 2020: 9,746
- 2021: 11,389
- 2022: 12,561
- 2023: 14,532
The reveal of these figures from SteamDB came days after Valve revealed the winners of the 2023 Steam Awards. Though BG3 was the top award-winner of 2023 on Steam, users took to social media to question the fact that Red Dead Redemption 2 and Starfield respectively took home awards in the "Labor of Love" and "Most Innovative Gameplay" categories. Needless to say, with over 110 titles and counting already released in 2024, Steam is on pace to record similar releases this year.
It remains to be seen what the final total of game releases will be at the end of it. While the year is still fresh, between upcoming releases and a slate of sales scheduled throughout 2024 on Steam, Valve may very well keep the pace it has established over several years.
Steam is a digital video game storefront and program developed by Valve that allows gamers to purchase, play, and mod their titles all through one convenient program.
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info