Steam Replay is here and has revealed some interesting insight into the Steam community’s playtime in 2024.
Perhaps the most interesting stat revealed by Steam Replay is that just 15% of playtime spent by all Steam users this year was in games released in 2024.
That means the vast majority of Steam users are happy playing games released in 2023 or earlier, despite the likes of Palworld, Black Myth: Wukong, Helldivers 2, and the all-conquering Banana all launching in 2024. More recently, Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals released on Steam and saw huge concurrent player numbers.
Digging into the details, Steam Replay reveals 47% of playtime spent by all Steam users was in releases from the last one to seven years (recent favorites, as Steam calls them), and a sizable 37% in classic games (releases from eight or more years ago). I’m still addicted to Civilization 6, which came out in October 2016, so that checks out.
It’s easy to think that the data suggests gamers aren’t buying new games, but that’s clearly not the case. Palworld set sales records, as did Helldivers 2 and Black Myth: Wukong. And as PC Gamer noted, the 15% figure is up significantly on the 9% of playtime spent by all Steam users in 2023 on games released that year (2023 included Hogwarts Legacy and Baldur’s Gate 3). For extra context, the figure in 2022 was 17%, so the data is very up and down.
But clearly, many Steam players are happy sticking with older games, and Steam’s most-played list reinforces that. The top-three most-played games on Steam by concurrent players right now are Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, and Dota 2 — all old games. Other older games in the top 10 include Naraka: Bladepoint, GTA 5, Rust, and Apex Legends.
In April, data revealed that games that were at least six years old accounted for more than 60% of playtime in 2023 across PC and console. The top game across all major platforms was Fortnite. As has been expressed by many a video game analyst and CEO, publishers are finding it increasingly hard to wrestle gamers away from the games they already play and have spent money in, building up their library of virtual skins over the course of years.
Meanwhile, Steam Replay reveals the median number of games played by Steam users this year was just four, and the median unlocked achievements was 13. So don’t feel too bad if you’ve only played a handful of PC games this year. You’re in good company!
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.