Valve seems to be having the time of its life. In accordance with new information, the corporate is producing more cash by way of Steam than ever earlier than. In the meantime, the remainder of the business appears to be attempting to set fireplace to the whole lot.
The data comes from Alinea Analytics, in order all the time, the figures shouldn’t be handled as 100% correct. Nonetheless, the agency has a robust observe document on the subject of estimating gross sales and income.
Valve’s platform managed to rake in an estimated $11.1 billion in gross recreation income in the course of the first six months of 2026, representing a 14.5% rise year-on-year. Apparently, that was even 8% higher than the second half of 2025, which is fairly outstanding when you think about that the top of the 12 months contains the vacation season and its quite a few gross sales.
For the reason that first half of the 12 months ended, Steam has reportedly banked one other half-billion {dollars}, taking its estimated 2026 complete to $11.6 billion.
In accordance with Alinea, one of many greatest drivers behind Steam’s continued success is the large surge in Asian gamers, significantly these from China. Different elements embrace larger costs for brand spanking new releases, viral co-op video games, publishers making higher use of their again catalogues and corporations sheepishly returning to Steam after making an attempt to push prospects in direction of their very own launchers.
Let’s put Steam’s development into perspective, lets? In 2017, Steam generated an estimated $5.5 billion throughout the whole 12 months. By 2025, that had climbed to roughly $20 billion.
And that’s with out Half-Life 3. However no less than they gave us a tiny pc that prices a small fortune.
In accordance with Alinea’s estimates, simply 21% of Steam’s income in the course of the first half of 2026 got here from video games launched this 12 months. That’s down from the primary half of 2025, when 27% of income got here from video games launched throughout that calendar 12 months. Within the first half of 2024, the determine was 29%.
In different phrases, the remaining 79% got here from titles launched in 2025 or earlier.
A part of that may be attributed to Steam’s ever-growing assortment of wonderful video games, lots of which may regularly be bought at equally glorious costs throughout its countless procession of gross sales. Nonetheless, a big chunk of this back-catalogue income undoubtedly comes from the standard long-running heavy hitters, together with video games equivalent to Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG, Apex Legends, Rust, Name of Obligation and Grand Theft Auto V.
Alinea doesn’t present a breakdown of precisely which older video games are bringing in probably the most cash, although, so these examples ought to be handled as cheap suspects reasonably than confirmed culprits.
This isn’t a brand new drawback for the business. New releases face the more and more troublesome problem of convincing individuals to desert long-running, established video games equivalent to Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto On-line, League of Legends and the most recent incarnation of Name of Obligation.
Newzoo beforehand discovered that games at least six years old accounted for more than 60% of PC and console playtime during 2023. Simply 5 video games — Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V — reportedly accounted for 27% of all playtime by themselves.
That sample has not modified a lot, both. As I covered earlier this year, the 5 most-played video games on PlayStation throughout 2025 have been Fortnite, Name of Obligation, Grand Theft Auto V, Roblox and Minecraft — precisely the identical prime 5 as 2024.
Folks’s gaming time is more and more dominated by these monumental, continuously up to date video games. In the meantime, other data indicates that 63% of players buy two or fewer new games each year, together with roughly a 3rd who buy lower than one new recreation yearly.
That leaves new releases competing not solely in opposition to each different recreation launching across the similar time, however in opposition to many years of confirmed classics, closely discounted blockbusters and live-service video games into which gamers have already poured lots of and even 1000’s of hours.
However anyway, which new video games have been most profitable on Steam this 12 months?
In accordance with Alinea, sitting on the head of the grid is Forza Horizon 6, which has generated an estimated $197.7 million by way of Steam since launching lower than two months in the past. Round $4 million of that apparently got here from DLC, together with nearly $2 million from the VIP Membership.
Alinea estimates that the sport has bought 3.5 million copies on Steam and is producing income 3 times sooner than Forza Horizon 5 did on the equal level in its life.
That feels darkly humorous contemplating Xbox is at the moment present process a massive reset because its business is “not healthy”.
Nonetheless, Forza Horizon 6 has constantly been a uncommon vivid spot for the corporate. Earlier estimates suggested it was already nearing five million sales across every platform inside its first week, and I additionally thought it was the best game in the series so far, even when it was a really protected sequel.
Simply behind it’s Resident Evil Requiem, which has generated an estimated $194.5 million and bought round 3.4 million copies on Steam. That features roughly $1.3 million from the purely beauty Deluxe Package.
Apparently, Alinea estimates that solely 8.9% of the individuals who wishlisted the sport earlier than launch have purchased it to this point. That sounds low, however Resident Evil video games are inclined to take pleasure in lengthy gross sales tails, helped by common reductions and Capcom’s more and more efficient behavior of turning its again catalogue right into a money-printing machine.
In third place is Crimson Desert, sitting simply above $190 million since launching in March. That’s significantly spectacular as a result of it’s the solely fully new IP among the many prime three, though Alinea notes that its month-to-month income is starting to gradual because the preliminary wave of full-price gross sales dries up.
Slay the Spire 2 comes subsequent with an estimated $141.7 million, however it’s the clear winner on the subject of sheer quantity. The early-access sequel has reportedly bought 7.1 million copies in simply 4 months, greater than Forza Horizon 6 and Resident Evil Requiem mixed.
Its decrease $25 worth means it can not compete with these video games in complete income, however promoting greater than seven million copies whereas nonetheless in early entry is frankly ridiculous.
Subnautica 2 follows with an estimated $133.6 million, nearly all of which was generated throughout its early-access launch month in Could.
Lastly, there may be Meccha Chameleon, which has generated an estimated $71.3 million regardless of costing solely round $6.
That makes it comfortably the smallest recreation within the group when it comes to worth and improvement staff, however Alinea says it is usually the best-selling new Steam launch of 2026 by copies bought. It’s also said to be 2026’s best-selling game in terms of copies sold, too.
