New Steam Games Break Live Service Dominance in Record Year
▼ Summary
– New games performed significantly better on Steam in 2025, with 31 new titles in the Top 100 highest-grossing chart compared to 24 the previous year.
– Eight of the Platinum-tier revenue games were newly released in 2025, including titles like Monster Hunter Wilds and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.
– This strong performance for new releases is encouraging in a market often seen as dominated by older, perennial live-service games.
– An analyst suggested the success could be due to a strong year for new games and discounts on older titles reducing their revenue.
– Several older games, like Warframe and Baldur’s Gate 3, continue to show remarkable long-term revenue strength in the Gold tier.
The past year on Steam delivered a powerful and welcome surprise, with newly released titles breaking the dominance of established live-service giants to achieve record-breaking revenue. Analysis reveals a significant shift, as fresh games claimed a larger share of the platform’s highest-grossing chart compared to previous years, signaling a vibrant and competitive marketplace for innovative releases.
Data from GamesDiscoverCo highlights this trend clearly. In Steam’s Top 100 highest-grossing games, titles classified as new, released in either the current or prior year, increased from 24 to 31. More strikingly, games launched in 2025 collectively earned substantially more than those from other years. Steam organizes its top earners into tiers: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. While the Platinum tier still includes perennial powerhouses like Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, and Apex Legends, eight of the other Platinum-ranked games were all new releases.
This year’s standout Platinum entrants include Monster Hunter Wilds, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Arc Raiders, Marvel Rivals, and Battlefield 6. The list also features unexpected successes like the controversial Schedule 1 and the cooperative horror title REPO. Call of Duty also appears as a new entry due to a technical shift to a dedicated app. The Gold tier showcases strong performers such as Borderlands 4, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Elden Ring Nightrein, while the Silver tier includes anticipated games like Silksong, Civilization 7, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
These results are particularly encouraging given the broader industry context, where player engagement often seems locked into a few massive, enduring titles. Recent data from PlayStation underscored this, showing the most-played games of 2025 were identical to 2024: Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto V, Roblox, and Minecraft. While “most played” differs from “highest grossing,” it paints a picture of a market where live-service titans cast a long shadow. The Steam revenue data, therefore, represents a meaningful breakthrough for new intellectual property and sequels.
Commenting on the findings, Simon Carless of GameDiscoverCo noted the revenue concentration was more “front-loaded for recency than we expected.” He suggested potential causes, including the possibility that 2025 was simply an exceptionally strong year for major game launches. Another factor could be that older, perennial sellers relied on heavy discounts, which limited their revenue compared to full-priced new releases. Carless concluded it was likely a combination of these elements driving the trend.
The analysis also provided insights into the enduring appeal of older games. Titles like Warframe and Dead by Daylight, both over a decade old, maintained their strength as consistent Gold-tier revenue generators for the fourth consecutive year. Meanwhile, Baldur’s Gate 3 continued its remarkable staying power in the Gold tier after two years in Platinum, and Cyberpunk 2077 remained a Gold-tier earner five years post-launch, recently celebrating 35 million copies sold. This demonstrates that while new games are making a major splash, depth and quality can ensure a title’s longevity for years.
The success story of 2025 naturally leads to speculation about what the next year will bring. Which upcoming releases will manage to carve out their own space in next year’s top tiers, challenging both the new champions and the old guards?
(Source: Euro Gamer)
