Only 15% of Steam users have played games released in 2024, but why?
- 15% of Steam users’ playing time is spent on games from 2024
- 47% of play time for games up to eight years old
- Lots of reasons for this, including more older games to play
Steam’s year-end review has always revealed some fascinating PC gaming trends and this year’s are no exception. According to 2024 statistics, only 15% of Steam users spent their total playing time on games launched in 2024.
If we look further at the data that PC gamer According to reports, 47% of total play time on Steam was spent on games released in the last seven years, while 37% of that time was spent on games released eight or more years ago. The question now is: why and what does this mean?
One possible explanation is that gamers might focus more on their backlogs than on new releases. We do know that playtime for current releases is higher this year than in 2023, as there was an increase from 9% to 15%, meaning players are at least buying new titles. There are also other possibilities for this trend.
Other possibilities for this statistic
One reason could be that older games are easier to access due to their lower prices, especially due to the many Steam sales. There’s also the influence of the Steam Deck and what’s considered ‘Steam Deck playable’, as many recent AAA games may be too demanding for a portable PC.
There’s also the fact that older ones like live service games Counterattack, Dota 2And PUBG are in Steam’s most played charts, while newer titles are having an incredibly difficult time breaking through and building a player base.
Another reason is that Steam has released over 200,000 titles over the decades, compared to the relatively paltry 18,000 games released in 2024, according to sources. SteamDB. Naturally, more users will spend more time playing older games than recent ones.
Regardless, 15% of play time spent on new games is quite impressive, compared to 2022’s 17% statistic. It means the numbers are recovering after the huge dip in 2023. Hopefully we’ll see again next year an increase, as gamers delve into more new titles.