The showdown between Western and Asian blockbusters, Steam records, and indie hits: the highest-grossing releases of October in numbers and charts
Before the market crashes under the pressure of GTA 6, it's a great time to discuss the new releases for October on PC and consoles. In Japan, home console releases continue to dominate, Call of Duty returns to its prime, and Steam sets new records once again.
The games discussed in this article:
- Revenue, sales, and other metrics of October's largest releases: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Phantom Blade Zero, Aion 2, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Ace Combat 8, Gears of War: E-Day, and more;
- Data on indie hits and mid-budget novelties: Probably Stolen, Planet Zoo 2, Enshrouded (version 1.0), over the hill, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, and more;
- The most anticipated releases of November by wishlist count (excluding GTA 6): Dreadmoor, ArcheAge Chronicles, Casualties: Unknown, Loftia, and others.
Last month, 3,647 new titles were released on Steam, which is a 79% increase compared to the same period in 2025. This sets a record for the highest number of releases in a single month. To understand the scale, more projects were released in October than in January and February combined.
This year, Steam has already updated its historical highs for the fifth time—and for the fourth consecutive time.
However, out of this volume of October releases, only 481 (13.2%) are games with enabled profile features (cards, badges, etc.). These are projects that have surpassed a certain minimum threshold in revenue and user count.
- All October releases collectively generated over $480 million in revenue.
- The gross revenue of 26 projects (0.71%), excluding free-to-play titles and 1.0 version releases, exceeded one million dollars by the end of October—a number consistent with previous months, though the percentage of "millionaires" dropped due to the increasing number of releases.
- This exemplifies the perennial paradox of the Steam market: regardless of the number of releases, the count of potential hits remains roughly consistent, intensifying the competition for visibility.
- 25 games sold over 100,000 copies, while 131 titles surpassed the 10,000 copy threshold.
- Of all October's new releases, 362 received more than 100 reviews, and only 59 projects (1.6%) exceeded 1,000 reviews.
Next, we will review the results of major releases and supplement this information with data on the console market in the UK (GfK) and Japan (Famitsu).
To assess sales, revenue, and other metrics, we relied not only on official data from developers and publishers but also on information from third-party sources. Among them are Steam charts, as well as data from analytical companies like Gamalytic, GameDiscoverCo, and Sensor Tower (VG Insights). All figures in the article cover the period from the game's release date to October 31, 2026.
Three new releases immediately entered the top 10 highest-grossing releases of 2026
