It is easy to really feel just like the videogame trade is an infinite twister of shattered goals and hellfire, and that is as a result of it’s. Nevertheless it additionally brings in some huge cash, and our beloved PC gaming area specifically is rising quicker than each cellular and console markets. Thursday, a report from Alinea Analytics stated Steam is simply exiting its greatest six months ever.
“Within the first half of 2026, we estimate that video games on Steam generated $11.1B in gross income, the platform’s highest-ever half-year,” wrote Rhys Elliott, Alinea’s head of market evaluation. “That’s up 14.5% on H1 2025, and up 8% even on the holiday-heavy H2 2025, which is the extra exceptional comparability given the again half of the yr often wins on seasonal gross sales and vacation buys.”
The total weblog highlights among the greatest causes for all this development: new video games are dearer, friendslop megahits like Meccha Chameleon rake in mountains of money earlier than you may blink, and third events like Ubisoft are again on Steam after they tried and failed to flee Gabe’s dread labyrinth to play ball with Steam’s lessers.
The total listing of causes and takeaways is within the weblog, however this all follows a really lengthy upward pattern: because the report states, Steam’s yearly income has gone from $5.5 billion in 2017 to roughly $20 billion in 2025. A rising share of all these gross sales is from previous video games, too: to date, “simply 21%” of Steam’s 2026 income has come from video games that launched this yr, down from 29% in 2024.
That stated, loads of new video games have been massive moneymakers to date: the highest 5 when it comes to gross income for brand spanking new video games are Forza Horizon 6, Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert, Slay the Spire 2, and Subnautica 2 (Meccha Chameleon snuck into sixth place). It is likely to be particularly galling to see a first-party Xbox sport on the prime of that listing given, , all the things. It is arduous to think about this development will proceed—and even quantity to a lot—if the trade’s greatest corporations proceed to destroy the groups they rely upon.
