There Are Too Many Goddamn Games, and It's a Huge Problem (Unless You're a Gamer)
Ever scroll through Steam's 'New Releases' tab and feel an overwhelming sense of existential dread? You're not alone. It turns out the firehose of new games we're all drinking from is spraying harder than ever before.
In a new report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, a staggering statistic from SteamDB lays bare the new reality of the gaming industry: the number of games released on Steam has skyrocketed by 93% in just four years. In 2020, there were 9,656 new games. In 2024, that number swelled to a mind-numbing 18,626.
This isn't just some fun fact..no, it's a symptom of an industry that's becoming unsustainably crowded, creating a paradox where it's simultaneously the best and worst time to be in the business of video games.
A Golden Age for Us, A Bloodbath for Them
Let's be clear: for the players, this is fantastic news. Players are drowning in choice. There's a constant, unrelenting flood of good games at every price point, from massive AAA blockbusters to weird, brilliant indie gems. It has arguably never been a better time to be a gamer.
But for the people actually making these games, it's a fucking nightmare. Developers aren't just competing with each other anymore. In today's attention economy, they're fighting a losing war against Netflix, TikTok, and the all-consuming black holes that are "forever games" like Fortnite. A studio can pour years of blood, sweat, and tears into a project, only to have it completely vanish upon release because it launched on the same day as 50 other titles.
The Silent Killer
This insane level of market saturation is the silent killer behind the endless wave of layoffs and studio closures we've been seeing. You'll never see a publisher's press release say, "We're shutting down because there are too many goddamn games," but it's an undeniable, underlying cause. They'll talk about "restructuring" and "market realignment," but the quiet truth is that the sheer volume of competition is making it harder than ever to turn a profit.
This is the new normal. A chaotic, oversaturated, and brutal landscape where only the biggest, loudest, or luckiest games survive. It's a great time to be a player, but I wouldn't want to be a developer trying to pay their rent with a dream. The odds are no longer in their favor.