Early Access launches hit 2,924 on Steam in 2026 as quality bar climbs

Steam recorded 2,924 Early Access game launches in 2026 as of mid-October, an 18% rise from 2025 and a 60% rise from 2020, according to SteamDB — and the developers riding that wave say the format now demands launch-grade quality. Early Access titles grew from 10.4% of all Steam releases in 2024 to 11.3% in 2025 and 13.7% in 2026. The problem for studios: GameDiscoverCo found that only 21% of Steam Early Access graduates earned more in their first 30 days after 1.0 than after their Early Access release, meaning the paid-beta window has effectively become the commercial launch.

GamesIndustry.biz spoke to the teams behind Valheim, Subnautica, Hades, Phasmophobia, Paralives, and Deadhaus Sonata about the rising bar, the value of player feedback, and their regrets.

Why does the quality bar keep rising?

Anthony Gallegos, creative director of Subnautica 2, describes a format that now covers everything: "It's not a few edge-case games participating anymore." Early Access can mean long-term open development or "a game three months from a 1.0 release that's effectively doing a paid beta soft launch," producing what he calls a "more diverse and confusing landscape."

Denis Dyack, CEO of Deadhaus Sonata developer Apocalypse Studios, argues that "giant publishers with insane amounts of money, manpower, and resources" have distorted player expectations. "AAA publishers are abusing Early Access, skewing player expectations in such a way that it heavily disadvantages smaller independent developers," he said, citing Subnautica 2 and Path of Exile as games that drastically changed the landscape. His studio hit "significant barriers to entry" and saw its marketplace impact reduced.

Richard Svensson, CEO of Valheim developer Iron Gate, estimates player expectations for an Early Access game sit roughly 20% below a full release: "They might be more forgiving when it comes to content, but they still expect a polished game." Paralives developer Alex Massé delayed his Early Access launch from December 2025 to May 2026 after pre-release tests showed weak tutorials. Ethan McKinnon, creative director at Apocalypse Studios, distilled the advice: "Developers need to treat Early Access like a real launch, because players do."

What does Early Access still deliver?

The financial case remains strong. Paralives sold 250,000 copies within eight hours of its May 2026 Early Access launch, giving Massé's small team — competing against The Sims 4 and its 12 years of EA-backed content — financial security. Valheim sold more than five million copies in its first month after entering Early Access in February 2021, surpassing 10 million by 2022 and 17 million by the time 1.0 shipped on September 9, 2026.

"If Early Access as a model hadn't existed, Valheim never would have gotten as big as it did," Svensson said. Supergiant Games' Greg Kasavin called Early Access "instrumental to the success of the original Hades," prompting the studio to repeat the process with Hades 2.

Feedback is the second draw. Phasmophobia maker Kinetic Games' CEO Daniel Knight said player input has "allowed the game to almost transform into something else," while Massé cautioned that the volume of feedback makes it "easy to get lost in it" when players split between wanting new content and feature improvements.

How long is too long in Early Access?

GameDiscoverCo puts the average Steam Early Access period at 21 months, but Valheim ran over five years. Phasmophobia, launched into Early Access in September 2020 after five years of solo work, sold almost 100,000 units in its first week against a target of 1,000 units in a year — and Knight's plans grew accordingly. Its 1.0, once expected in 2026, has slipped to the second half of 2027, with a poorly received player character update in May 2026 cited as "one of the biggest reasons" for the delay.

What went wrong for Deadhaus Sonata?

Apocalypse Studios launched the dark fantasy ARPG (action role-playing game) into Early Access in May 2026 and drew backlash over performance issues, bugs, and thin content. "We failed to prioritise the basics right from the get-go," Dyack said, adding the team "didn't handle Unreal Engine properly." McKinnon joined to overhaul visuals ahead of October 2026's Dark Rebirth update, noting that "people still form a first impression in Early Access, so you have to earn some of those players back later." Dyack's motivation was blunter: "We just don't want to get punched in the face again."

Svensson's own regret was a rushed, abandoned roadmap — his advice is to keep it vague and "even remotely doable." Paralives, meanwhile, aims to exit Early Access in 2028.