Analysts: In 2024, indie games on Steam for the first time nearly matched the revenue of AA and AAA games
From January 1 to September 30, 2024, indie games earned a total of $4 billion on Steam, according to a report from the analytics company VG Insights. This accounts for 48% of the total revenue of all games on Valve's store during this period.
Black Myth: Wukong — on the left, Palworld — on the right
Important: VG Insights only considers revenue from sold game copies, not including revenue from microtransactions.
Analysts noted that the indie segment showed significant growth compared to 2023. Its revenue on Steam for the entire last year amounted to $2.7 billion. The jump can largely be attributed to Black Myth: Wukong and Palworld. By September 30, these two games alone earned about $1.5 billion on Steam, surpassing all other indie releases of 2024 combined (which earned $0.8 billion).
Indie game revenue on Steam in 2023 and 2024
Additional data from the report:
- 13,000 games were released on Steam in the first nine months of 2024. Of these, 98.9% were indie;
- Total game sales on Steam during this period amounted to 504 million copies, with indie accounting for 58% of the sales;
Number of releases on Steam in the first nine months of 2024, number of copies sold, and game revenue on the platform during this period
- 53% of the revenue from the indie segment on Steam from January to September 2024 came from so-called III-games — projects with revenue over $50 million and sales exceeding a million copies in their debut year, typically developed by teams of more than 50 people;
- Another 20% of the revenue came from games by smaller teams (3-15 people) with a box office of around $1 million, 19% of revenue came from games by medium-sized teams (15-50 people) with a box office of around $10 million, and 8% of revenue came from hobby projects with a box office of about $50,000;
Indie game revenue on Steam broken down by sub-segments
- Analysts observed a pattern between the revenue size of an indie game and its ordinal position in the studio's portfolio. On average, revenue for a debut game amounts to $120,000, a second game to $168,000, and a third game to $209,000.
