Only 608 of 20,282 games released on Steam in 2025 reached 1,000 reviews
Steam saw 20,282 game releases in 2025, with only 608 managing to accumulate over 1,000 user reviews. That's according to Chris Zukowski, indie developer and game marketing expert, in his annual analysis of Valve's platform. Despite the low percentage, Zukowski views the situation rather positively.
Zukowski is quick to clarify that his analysis focuses on games with at least 1,000 reviews, though many projects achieve commercial success with lower numbers.
I know several developers who have earned over $150,000 with just 500 reviews and secured Daily Deals on Steam. If you got 525 reviews and earned $150K+ I am proud of you. I am sorry you didn't show up in my survey. I have to draw the line somewhere.
The research methodology is straightforward: each January, Zukowski downloads a list of all games released the previous year, filters those that earned at least 1,000 reviews, and then examines their Steam pages, screenshots, tags, and reviews in detail.
Notably, the percentage of games reaching 1,000 reviews rose to 2.99% – higher than 2024 (2.44%), 2023 (2.56%), and 2022 (2.74%). After several years of slight decline, the trend has reversed course.
"The numbers are going in the right direction. We might be in a bit of an indie golden age."
According to Zukowski, Steam players primarily value fun and are willing to embrace even rough but engaging projects. He points to hits like Megabonk, RV There Yet, and Peak as examples.
Zukowski also compiled a ranking of the 10 most-represented genres among the 608 standout games:
Narrative – 51
Simulation – 43
Horror – 39
RPG – 28
Idle/incremental – 27
Roguelike – 22
Adult – 21
Multiplayer shooter – 21
Shooter – 21
Management – 19
Remarkably, horror had topped Zukowski's reports for years, but this time lost the lead to narrative games. The growth of the latter is tied to a wave of FMV games from China, including visual novels, detective games, and "spooky but not quite horror" titles.
Even more revealing was comparing genres by their success rate. Open-world survival craft games dominated with 20.8% of releases (15 games) hitting 1,000 reviews. Farming simulators trailed far behind at 8.3% (5 games), followed by roguelike deckbuilders at 5.1% (11 games), simulation at 4.1% (43 games), and management at 3.4% (19 games).
The worst performers were 2D platformers (0.18%, just 3 games out of 1,658 releases), point-and-click adventures (also 0.18% and 3 games), and puzzle games (0.34%, 14 games out of 4,022). These figures starkly illustrate how oversaturated certain niches have become on Steam and how difficult it is to stand out.
Zukowski acknowledges his data's imperfections due to Steam's tagging system issues – "unfortunately many developers mis-tag their game" – but even with this approach, the analysis offers valuable insights into platform trends and visibility.
