Steam released a record number of games in 2024 — over 18,000 new titles were added to the platform

Steam released 18,825 new games in 2024, beating its previous record of 14,311 last year. However, Steam-monitoring platform SteamDB breaks down this number into 14,888 limited games and 3,937 games. Limited games are titles that have limited profile customization features because they haven’t met certain criteria like the number of their player base and the number of copies sold. Steam also released its list of the top-rated titles for the year.

Even so, 2024 saw the greatest number of games sold since 2019, with the count consistently increasing from then, even through the 2020 Global Pandemic. One might also say that the 14,888 limited games published on the platform is an achievement, but some also argue that these titles are often rubbish and not worth spending money on.

Steam Replay 2024 says that the average Steam user played four titles throughout the year, the same as last year and one less than in 2022. Nevertheless, the platform says that almost 40 million users are online during the holiday period, about 8 million more than the previous year.

Despite this growing number of users, Steam says it still won’t do annual releases of its handheld console, so we likely won’t see a Steam Deck 2 next year. The company says it will only do so when a generational leap in computing power takes place, so its users who upgrade from the original Steam Deck will receive better performance. On the flip side, many Windows handheld console makers are releasing Steam Deck alternatives, with MSI launching its next-gen handheld consoles in late November and Lenovo and Asus expected to follow suit in early 2025.

Still, Steam also encountered a few issues this year. For one, it finally had to clarify that you technically don’t own the games you buy on the platform. It also had to finally drop support for Windows 7 and 8, with users still sticking to these old operating systems told to ‘update to a more recent version of Windows,’ although we also recommend switching to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or newer, which Steam also supports (and is free!).

Whatever people say, Steam is still a popular platform for discovering the latest games and downloading your most favorite titles. And with more titles available on the platform than ever before, you would not run out of games to play during this holiday season.