The median Steam game released in 2026 earns $1,728 — more than ten times less than the roughly $15,000 median for titles released in 2016, according to a comprehensive study published by We Love It, an alternative Steam discovery tool. The data confirms median revenue on Valve's storefront has now declined for 12 consecutive years.

The study, led by Ichiro Lambe — CEO of Totally Human Media and a former Valve employee who ran Steam Labs — together with Marketing Director Matt Martindale and Technical Consultant Timofey Ermilov, co-founder of Hyperflow and DataBorg, paints a picture of extreme concentration in the PC market.

How unequal is Steam revenue distribution?

Half of all games ever released on Steam have earned less than $3,558. The Gini coefficient for the store sits at 0.984, a statistical measure of inequality where values approaching 1 indicate maximum concentration. The distribution breaks down as follows:

• 1% of all games account for 84.6% of total earnings
• 5% of games account for 96.91% of revenue
• 10% account for 98.81% of revenue
• 60.7% of games earn less than $10,000
• Only 14.4% of titles can expect revenue exceeding $100,000

For studios and solo developers, the practical implication is stark: the vast majority of releases operate at a loss once development time is factored in, and the odds of clearing even a modest $100,000 threshold are roughly one in seven.

Why is median revenue falling?

The study identifies supply growth outpacing total store revenue as the core mechanism. The Steam catalog is expanding faster than the store's overall earnings, diluting the median across an ever-larger pool of releases.

The pace of new supply remains heavy. As of September 1, 17,200 games had launched on Steam in 2026, compared with 23,000 for the entire previous year — putting 2026 on track to match or exceed that total with a quarter of the calendar remaining.

This dynamic squeezes discovery for mid-tier releases hardest. A game released in 2016 earned about $15,000 on average; a 2026 release earns around $1,728. Hit-driven revenue at the top continues to grow, but the gains no longer trickle down to the median title.

Which genres still hit $100,000?

Genre selection materially shifts the odds of commercial success, according to the research. The highest hit rates — defined as the share of projects reaching $100,000 in revenue — belong to:

• Sandbox: 27.3%
• FPS: 21.6%
• RPG: 19.4%

At the other end, racing, puzzle, arcade and platformer games post the lowest median earnings, at around $1,000 or less. For teams weighing genre bets, the data suggests premium, systems-heavy categories retain materially better monetization prospects than casual and short-form genres, even as overall medians collapse.

What changes for developers?

The findings reinforce a market where discoverability, not development, is the binding constraint. With 14.4% of titles clearing $100,000 and more than 60% stuck under $10,000, marketing spend, platform features and genre strategy now carry more weight in revenue outcomes than at any point in Steam's recent history.

The research team's credentials lend the numbers weight. Lambe's tenure at Valve heading Steam Labs — the initiative behind the store's recommendation and discovery experiments — places the analysis close to the platform's own data infrastructure, while Ermindov's background at Hyperflow and DataBorg underpins the technical methodology.

Whether Valve responds with further discovery or curation tools, and whether the 2026 release cadence sustains its current pace through the fourth quarter, will shape how much worse the median gets before it stabilizes.