Fifteen Percent of Steam Players Dive into 2024’s Fresh Game Lineup

Valve’s annual summary for Steam was recently unveiled, revealing an intriguing statistic regarding its user base.

In addition to a detailed analysis of the games that players engaged with this year, it was highlighted that only 15 percent of Steam users dedicated their time to games released in 2024. In contrast, 47 percent of players focused on titles from the past 1-7 years (or “recent favorites”), while 37 percent explored games that are eight years old or older (“classics”).

For reference, 17 percent of Steam users interacted with the latest games of 2022, and in 2023, this figure dropped to 9 percent. The percentage of recent favorites for 2022 and 2023 was recorded at 19 percent and 52 percent, respectively, while the classic games for those years were 62 percent and 38 percent.

Throughout 2024, titles like Helldivers 2, Marvel Rivals, and Balatro experienced substantial player counts or sales (or both). Nevertheless, Steam’s most-played games continue to be dominated by older, free-to-play options: the top titles for 2023 include Counter-Strike 2, 2013’s Dota 2, and 2017’s PUBG.

In the following ranks are Marvel Rivals and Path of Exile II, both of which launched earlier this month. Additionally, Sky’s Banana is the third game of the year that rounds out Steam’s Top 10 most-played list, having been released this past December.

As noted by PCGamer, Steam is home to a total of 201,695 games. According to SteamDB, this year witnessed 18,687 new releases, marking a 30 percent increase from the 14,313 games launched in 2023.

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