Whenever SteamSpy’s founder Sergey Galyonkin shares insights from his creation, it’s by no means lower than attention-grabbing. At GDC this 12 months he gave his newest report on the state of Steam, and it’s an enchanting blended bag. The headlines: gross sales and costs are dropping, regardless of premium value factors being essentially the most profitable, and regardless of final 12 months having been Steam’s finest thus far – by sure measures.
In equity 2017 was a reasonably nice 12 months all-round for PC gaming. Here are our picks from last year.
Last 12 months Steam grew by each vital metric: general sport gross sales, complete income generated (as much as $4.3bn from $3.5bn in 2016, not together with DLC gross sales, microtransactions, or free-to-play video games), and viewers measurement. Indeed, Galyonkin says 63 million Steam customers signed up in 2017, representing 22% of the platform’s complete 291 million gamers, so it’s nonetheless rising at an astonishing price.
However, sales-per-game and common costs are each taking place. Three years ago, about 32,000 individuals owned the median sport on Steam. Now, that determine is 9,500. For an indie, it’s 5,000. For an indie launched in 2017, it’s simply 1,500.
In probably associated information, costs are additionally dropping: the median value for a sport now could be simply $5.99. That’s $3.99 for an indie, and $2.99 for an indie launched in 2017. Galyonkin’s evaluation: “the pricing situation is becoming more and more unhealthy, and reminds me of the pre-iOS 11 App Store. The race to zero is on.”
These new issues compound the acquainted downside of surging sport releases, and the attendant discoverability problem. As of February this 12 months there have been 21,406 video games on Steam, of which 7,696 (or 39%) have been launched in 2017 alone. In the indie sector, there have been 2,149 indies on Steam in 2015, and 13,624 as of February 2018. So whereas Steam is rising, the viewers merely can’t hold tempo with the flood of recent releases.
In gentle of this, Galyonkin notes that counting medians and averages is “starting to lose its meaning”. At the highest finish of the market, the income wanted to crack Steam’s prime 2,000 video games has not modified a lot: $150,000 in 2017 versus $160,000 in 2016.
Speaking of bestsellers, these have been essentially the most profitable video games on Steam final 12 months.
Not many surprises: PUBG, CS:GO, and GTA V make up the highest three, with triple-A dominating the checklist. Indie exceptions embrace Divinity: Original Sin 2, Rocket League, Ark, and Cuphead.
Of these, none sit on the $9.99 value level, “a so-called sweet spot that a lot of indies love”, as Galyonkin says. If you’re taking out PUBG (which prices $29.99 and bought sufficient by itself to skew the information), essentially the most profitable value factors on Steam are literally $19.99 and $59.99, with these two costs accounting for 40% of all income.
“Surprise: cheap games do not make a lot of money,” says Galyonkin. “People are still mostly buying relatively expensive and quality titles.”
Galyonkin full report is on Medium here and is properly value a learn.
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