Monday, July 13th 2026
Steam Made $11 Billion in Six Months, Mostly from Older Game Titles
Valve is making a fortune, as confirmed by the latest data from Alinea Analytics, which estimates Steam has generated an impressive $11.1 billion in revenue in the first half of the year. These numbers are not only record-setting for Valve but also highlight the significant influence Steam has within the gaming community. As a privately-owned company, Valve's revenue figures are not publicly disclosed. However, analysis from Alinea Analytics estimates that the gross revenue for the first six months of the year is $11.1 billion, nearly matching the entire year of 2021 ($11.4 billion), when the COVID pandemic significantly boosted the gaming community as people stayed home for extended periods.
Interestingly, the majority of Steam's revenue comes from older games. The report notes that only 21% of the revenue stream has come from 2026 game releases, while the rest is supported by a catalog of older titles. Perhaps gamers have been saving up to purchase older games or simply waiting for new releases to resolve the initial bugs and issues that often accompany major game launches. The top-selling games in the first half of 2026 include Forza Horizon 6, generating $197.7 million since launch, Resident Evil Requiem with $194.5 million, and Crimson Desert with $190.1 million from game sales. A complete chart with more games is included below.
Alinea Analytics identifies several key factors driving Valve's increasing revenue. First, the number of active Steam users in Asia is rising rapidly, with China leading the way. Secondly, publishers have been releasing higher-priced games and engaging in viral collaborations with other studios to boost sales. Interestingly, perhaps the most significant factor is the retreat of game publishers who attempted to launch their own platforms, only to return to Steam when gamers were reluctant to adopt their platforms. Even Epic Games is struggling to attract more players without offering free games, indicating that Steam's revenue machine is just getting started.
Source:
Allinea Analytics
Interestingly, the majority of Steam's revenue comes from older games. The report notes that only 21% of the revenue stream has come from 2026 game releases, while the rest is supported by a catalog of older titles. Perhaps gamers have been saving up to purchase older games or simply waiting for new releases to resolve the initial bugs and issues that often accompany major game launches. The top-selling games in the first half of 2026 include Forza Horizon 6, generating $197.7 million since launch, Resident Evil Requiem with $194.5 million, and Crimson Desert with $190.1 million from game sales. A complete chart with more games is included below.
29 Comments on Steam Made $11 Billion in Six Months, Mostly from Older Game Titles
If you look at the Steam Year In Review stats then 14% was the percentage of playtime spent by all Steam users in new releases (games released in 2025) and the year before, i.e. for 2024 games, it was 15%.
Most people seem to spend the vast majority of time in older releases and the Steam median for actual games played in 2024 and 2025 was 4. Four games. That's it. Many Steam gamers play few games and older games. This is also reflected by the 'Most Played' charts on Steam which are always dominated by the same old games (CS, Dota 2, PUBG, the end).
That said, I personally managed to stay below the Steam stats for 2025 in the new releases percentage category (just about the only stat where I was below the average/median). Instead of 14%, I only spent 11% of my playtime in 2025 releases.
This checks out as I have a huge backlog and I have become a complete edition buyer. I don't care about most new releases because often times there is already DLC announced before the game is even released or they announce roadmaps, endless patch orgies shortly after release, yada, yada, yada... just gimme the finished, complete product. I don't mind waiting as I'm not a multiplayer person who needs full servers. I'm always only interested in SP and campaign/story content.
I'm still rooting for GOG...
People keep complainig but 70% of 37B is a whole lot more than Epic's 88% of nothing.
EPIC and gog.com have a different business strategy. STEAM does not participate with amazon prime "paid" game giveaways.
Mirosoft Storge, ubisoft store, ea store, etc shall not be forgotten also in that context
I also haven't played any new releases right off the bat, usually I get a new game 6-12 months after its release because it goes on sale or gets patched (or both), but only if it's available on GoG. Anything that doesn't come to GoG, doesn't bother me. I've got a ton of games to play and missing out on some doesn't impact me at all.
As for playing older titles, yep, that's what I've been doing lately. Playing my older physical copies of games (it's a slow process) or I've been dumping countless hours into Grim Dawn (nearly 1100 hours).
How many people would start buying from GOG directly in order to support the devs from Valve's 30% take?
Their profit would definitely go up.
I don't recall what titles, but I had a handful I had purchased on Steam years ago that was on the list for GoG to receive a free copy. This was something that GoG offered years ago and it is no longer a thing.
**Edit**
Looking through my order history on GoG - I'm thinking Two Worlds was one of them that gave you a copy on GoG if you had a copy on Steam and linked your account to GoG. I purchased Two Worlds on Steam way back in 2007. I got a free copy on GoG back in 2015. Shadowrun Returns may have also been on that list, I have that showing up as "free" on my GoG history same day as Two worlds, but it was a game I purchased on Steam back in 2014.
This was one of the draws of GoG for me at the time, I could get copies of some games I had on Steam for free on GoG.
Valve makes bank, Gaben makes bank, employees make bank.
As far as the financial side is concerned, everybody working there is more than happy.
Starting on June 2016, GOG did exactly what you suggest via the GOG Connect program. It didn't apply to all games but allowed you to link your Steam account and claim matching games on GOG without extra cost.
www.tomsguide.com/us/get-steam-games-gog,news-22762.html
arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/06/transfer-steam-games-to-gog-connect-drm-free/
The program was discontinued in 2023 but by that time it had already been inactive for years. There's a item in GOG Community Wishlist to bring it back, if you're interested:
www.gog.com/wishlist/site/bring_back_gog_connect
I'm currently playing Star War Outlaws and even if is a repetitive, mediocre and boring kind of a game, is still the best compared to the complete crap that was 2025 and 2026 in game releases...
store.steampowered.com/app/2941710/Project_Silverfish/
Also available on itch.io
siris-pendrake.itch.io/project-silverfish
And this is one of my top picks for 2026:
store.steampowered.com/app/1963610/Road_to_Vostok/
If you know where to look, there are plenty of great games you can get for a fraction of the price of a AAA from a company that cares more about their bottom line than about the games they make and the people who make them.
We ain't here to supply Gabe with more yachts, we here to play games