Horror and survival games with crafting in an open world are among the most popular genres on Steam in 2024
Game marketing expert Chris Zukowski investigated which genres produced the most "hits"—games with a thousand or more reviews*—on Steam during the first half of 2024.
Buckshot Roulette
- According to Zukowski's estimates, from January 1 to July 12, a total of 8,362 games were released on Steam. Of these, 232 projects received more than a thousand reviews.
- The leading genre is horror, which includes 20 "hits" released in the first half of 2024. For comparison, only 28 horrors received more than a thousand reviews on Steam for the entire year of 2023.
- Other top genres included survival games with crafting elements in open worlds (16 "hits"), adult games (nine "hits"), clickers (eight "hits"), simulators (seven "hits"), city-builders (seven "hits"), management games (seven "hits"), farm simulators (seven "hits"), and roguelike deckbuilders (four "hits").
- Also trending are 3D games with PlayStation 1 aesthetics and low-poly graphics, like Crow Country and Buckshot Roulette.
- Cooperative games are extremely popular on Steam. The co-op feature is available in 21% of all "hits" from the first half of 2024 on Steam, meaning 51 games.
- 2D platformers continue to sell poorly, while four new 3D platformers have already become "hits," including Little Kitty, Big City, and Rooftops & Alleys.
- Games similar to Vampire Survivors are experiencing a downturn. Only one new release from 2024, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, managed to gather more than a thousand reviews.
*According to Zukowski, a thousand reviews is an almost arbitrary metric. He chose this number because a) most games on Steam do not reach this milestone, and b) it typically corresponds to a gross revenue of $300,000. When a game's revenue reaches this level, Valve begins to offer developers various promotional options to boost game recognition, such as pop-ups and daily deals.