Analytics: only 232 games released in the first half of 2024 received at least a thousand reviews on Steam
Gaming marketing expert Chris Zukowski reviewed how many new releases in the first half of 2024 on Steam became "hits," meaning they garnered at least a thousand reviews* on the platform. There were not many.
- A total of 8,362 games were released on Steam during the period from January 1 to July 12 (i.e., by the end of the summer sale).
- Of those, only 232 games managed to collect a thousand reviews. 72 games became “hits” in the first quarter of 2024, and another 160 games joined the list in the second quarter of 2024.
- Out of the 160 "hits" from the second quarter, 119 games belong to the so-called "true indie" category, while the others are AAA games and games based on major IPs.
- No new release in the first half of 2024 that gathered less than 400 reviews in its debut month later reached the mark of a thousand reviews.
- Zukowski predicts that by the end of the year, around 500 releases from 2024 will have more than a thousand reviews on Steam. This is consistent with the figures from recent years, despite the rapid increase in the number of games released on the platform.
*According to Zukowski, a thousand reviews is an almost arbitrary metric. He chose this number because a) most games on Steam do not surpass this threshold, and b) it usually corresponds to a gross revenue of $300,000. When a game's income reaches this level, Valve starts offering developers various promotional options to boost the game's visibility, such as pop-ups and daily offers.
