ONLY 4% OF US ARE GOING TO MAKE MONEY ON STEAM

Hello fellow developers,

There’s a statistic floating around our community that often feels like a cold shower: only 4% of games released on Steam generate "meaningful" revenue (defined as earning enough to sustain a studio or fund a next project).

When you look at the raw numbers from 2025, that figure becomes even more stark. Last year, a record-breaking 20,018 games were shipped on Steam. If we apply that 4% threshold, it means only about 800 games out of twenty thousand truly "broke through" to financial stability.

At first glance, that looks like a lottery. But if you dig into the data, you’ll find that the 4% isn't chosen by fate, it’s built by design.

If you look at the 96% of games that don't make it, a massive portion are "zombie releases." These are titles with no marketing, placeholder capsule art, and Steam pages that launched just days before the game did. In fact, nearly half of all games released in 2025 received fewer than 10 reviews.

The market isn't just "saturated" with quality; it’s crowded with noise. The moment you treat your game like a product and not just a project, you’ve already bypassed the bottom 50%.

The developers who make up those 800 successful slots aren't just lucky; they follow a blueprint that most ignore:

The total revenue on Steam reached an all-time high of $17.7 billion in 2025. The money is there, more than it has ever been in the history of PC gaming. Indie games specifically accounted for 25% of that total revenue.

We aren't fighting for scraps; we are operating in a golden age of digital distribution. The "4%" is a filter, not a wall. By focusing on professional capsule art, community-driven demos, and early wishlist gathering, you aren't just "hoping" for success, you’re engineering it.

Let’s stop looking at the 20,000 games as competition and start looking at them as the background noise we are designed to rise above.

To the 4%!

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Redditor u/QuietDenGames did I nice bit of research on how early reviews juice the algo. Check it out - 10 early reviews really does make a huge difference in how Steam shows a game.

Friends&Family round in the form of wishlists. Redditor u/ZorioSnow talks about how they got their early wishlists from being scrappy.

We’re going to focus on this post written by Steve Fowler Too many core games are launched by using gasoline without a flame and hoping for ignition.

That approach fails not because the spend is too small, but because the fire was never built.

Here’s how I think about go-to-market for core games:

Fuel - The Game
Every bonfire starts with fuel. In our industry, that fuel is an outstanding game. Admittedly, this is the most important element. Marketing does not create belief; it reveals and amplifies belief that already exists. If the game lacks identity or quality, nothing sustains and marketing cannot save it.

Kindling - Core Audience & Super Fans
Fuel alone doesn’t burn. You need the right kindling. This is the small, specific group of players most predisposed to care; the future evangelists. Not everyone. Not “target demos.” Real humans who already love games like this and are eager to talk about them.

Spark - Early Engagement
A fire doesn’t start itself. It needs a spark. This is where studios stop talking at players and start talking with them. Early access, direct conversation, community spaces, and shared ownership. The spark is not scale. It’s intimacy.

Flame - Fandom
When fuel, kindling, and spark align, a flame emerges. This is fandom: belief, attachment, and organic momentum. Players share. Creators engage authentically. Algorithms begin to work in your favor. Marketing is no longer carrying the load alone.

Gasoline - Amplification
Gasoline is powerful, but only at the right time. Paid media, influencers, and press are accelerants - not ignition sources. When poured on a surface without flame, it fails to catch. When added to an existing fire, it drives explosive growth.

A lot of studios think they can start with gasoline.

That’s why so many launches burn out.

Go-to-market isn’t a launch event.

It’s the disciplined act of building heat long before you need the flames.Games marketing firm Gamesight published the statistic in its latest Performance Marketing Playbook, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. Gamesight charted the conversion rates of 30 premium games against their respective Steam review scores, showing that every game with a conversion rate over 2% boasted a Steam review rating over 80% positive.

The report also included a case study that followed a single unnamed game's 21-month marketing campaign, charting the campaign's success against its review score at the time. The game generally saw a higher conversion rate when its review score was higher, with the conversion rate peaking at over 7% when the game briefly achieved a rating of "Overwhelmingly Positive."

Festivals, showcases, influencer and media showcases and their submission windows.

All the best links that usually disappear into the Reddit ether only to be reposted by the most diligent Redditors and game development and marketing gurus. Link to the website archive of these great resources (GDMR)

Have a win, a learning, a question, or an opportunity worth sharing? Send it in. If it helps the community, we’ll surface it with credit. [email protected]