VG Insights, which uses third-party APIs to collect data, has released an infographic to show how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced game releases on Steam. The global situation had an impact on both indie and AAA titles.
Key takeaways
- For the first time ever, more than 10,000 games were released on Steam in 2020, which is up 23.7% year-over-year.
- Remote work affected AAA companies, which had to delay many of their big games. Only 151 AAA titles were released on Steam in 2020, which is down 13.7% year-over-year.
- Indie studios, on the other hand, were more flexible and managed to increase the number of releases. 9,873 indie games were released on Steam in 2020, which is up 24.6% year-over-year.
- The average price for indie games on Steam was $7.5, which is slightly more than $7.3 in 2019. 41.2% of indie titles cost less than $4.99, while 16.6% of them are free. It’s also worth noting that the share of games that cost between $20 and $39.99 increased to 17.2%.
You can view the full infographic here.