We Love It's "Steam Revenue Report" estimates that roughly 1% of Steam's games account for 84.6% of the platform's total revenue. The research suggests that platform income is highly concentrated, with a large number of titles earning limited revenue and market attention.
The study was conducted by former Valve member and Steam Labs co-founder Ichiro Lambe, along with Matt Martindale and Dr. Tim Ermilov. Unable to access Valve's internal revenue data, the researchers used the Boxleiter method to estimate figures for 138,020 games, setting the median sales per user review at 35 copies.
Estimates show that the Gini coefficient for Steam game revenue reaches 0.984, where values closer to 1 indicate greater inequality in income distribution. Half of the paid games on the platform earned less than $3,542 over their entire sales cycle, while the threshold for the top 1% of titles stood at $15.8 million.
In terms of specific distribution, there are 65,309 games with revenues under $10,000, accounting for 60.1% of the relevant catalog but only 0.11% of total revenue. Games earning between $10,000 and $100,000 number 20,554, capturing 0.54% of revenue. Only 247 titles exceeded $100 million in revenue, representing just 0.2% of the catalog yet accounting for 62.33% of total income.
The report links this concentration to the rapid increase in the number of games. Annual releases on Steam grew from 7,427 in 2018 to over 23,000 in 2025. Faced with abundant choices, players often rely on review counts, concurrent player numbers, and exposure on platforms like Twitch and TikTok. Titles such as Grand Theft Auto V, Elden Ring, Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong, and Helldivers 2 are cited as examples of top-tier hits.
The study also notes that over 8,000 paid games have received no user reviews. Performance varies by genre: sandbox games showed relatively strong profitability and revenue distribution in 2026, while visual novels, simulation, RPGs, and horror games also posted high profit margins; 2D and 3D platformers, meanwhile, ranked at the bottom in overall financial performance.