Report: 2016 revenue flat on Steam despite 75% rise in new games

Thanks to analytics site Steam Spy we now have an idea of how Valve’s online store performed in 2016.

According to the outlet, $3.5bn was generated in revenue by software sales on Steam, in line with revenue figures seen in 2015. That’s in spite of new releases spiking by 75 per cent for the year.

More than 3,000 new titles were released on Steam in 2015, while 5,245 hit the digital storefront in 2016.

The site’s owner, Sergey Galyonkin, says that the reason revenue is estimated to be flat year-on-year despite rising release figures is due to a lack of truly big titles", such as 2015’s triple threat of Grand Theft Auto V, Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3.

370bn games were sold on Steam during the year.

It’s worth pointing out that Steam Spy’s figures are not 100 per cent accurate, nor does the site claim them to be.

The best-selling games of 2016 in terms of units were Valve’s own Counter-Strike: GO, which had 6.7m new owners in 2016, ahead of Psyonix’s Rocket League (2.6m) and the highly popular Garry’s Mod (2.3m).

Grand Theft Auto V was bought by 2.3m people in 2016, while new release Stardew Valley – the highest-performing new release – sold 2m units.

In the revenue charts its a largely different story. Civilization VI generated $78.9m was 2016’s highest-grossing title. Rockstar’s GTA V charted in second place, bringing in an estimate $73.6m.

Here are Steam Spy’s 2016 revenue and sales figures:

And here are the best-selling and highest-grossing games of the year: