Steam simply had its most worthwhile interval in its whole 22-year historical past, raking in $11 billion in the final six months — and it is largely thanks to older video games.
As proven in knowledge aggregated by Alinea Analytics, this determine rivals what the platform grossed in the entire of 2020 in the course of the peak of the pandemic ($7.2 billion), and far of it was due to purchases of older video video games.
Actually, solely 21% of purchases from January – June have been for titles launched in 2026. Meaning a whopping 79% of video games purchased by gamers have been from 2025 or older. This development has solely been rising in current years, with simply 29% of 2024 income coming from video games launched that 12 months, and 27% in 2025 from that 12 months’s titles.
Alinea Analytics’ breakdown of video games bought on Steam in the final six months present that titles launched in 2026 made up the platform’s largest earners so far, with Forza Horizon 6, Resident Evil Requiem, and Crimson Desert taking the highest three spots, incomes $197.6M, $194.5M, and $190.1M, respectively.
Whereas these are the most-purchased video games on Steam in 2026, it appears a bevy of releases from years previous are making up the majority of its income proper now.
As instructed by Rhys Elliott in the Alinea Insights E-newsletter, a number of developments are to thank for this explosive six month interval: a surge of new customers in Asia (particularly China), new video games promoting for increased costs, co-op titles like Meccha Chameleon (Steam’s sixth most-purchased sport this 12 months) going viral, third-party publishers switching again to Steam after making an attempt to peddle their very own launchers, and extra publishers re-releasing their again catalogues of older video games.
Steam’s 2026 earnings have already practically outpaced what it made in 2021 ($11.4 billion), with Elliott stating the platform has nearly quintupled its half-year income in ten years.
With the Steam Machine’s launch on the horizon, we might be taking a look at a massively dominant 12 months for the corporate as extra consoles edge towards digital-only releases.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s Information Editor. With ten years of expertise reporting on video games and leisure, she’s received a storied background in the preventing sport group, influencer information, and viral on-line developments. Discover her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.