- 15% of Steam users’ gaming time will be dedicated to games in 2024
- 47% of gaming time is on games from eight years ago
- There are many reasons for this, including playing more older games
steamYear-end reviews always reveal some fascinating PC gaming trends, and this year is no different. According to 2024 statistics, only 15% of Steam users spend all their gaming time on games launched in 2024.
Further inspection of the data shows that computer gamer According to reports, 47% of total gaming time on Steam is spent on games released in the last seven years, and 37% of that time is spent on games released eight years ago or more. The question now is, why and what does this mean?
One possible explanation is that gamers may be more focused on their backlogs rather than new releases. We do know that the current version will be played longer this year than in 2023, increasing from 9% to 15%, which means players will at least buy the new game. There are other possibilities for this trend.
Other possibilities for this statistic
One reason could be that older games are more accessible due to their cheaper price, especially due to heavy sales on Steam. There is also an impact steam deck As well as what is considered “Steam Deck playable”, as many recent AAA games may be too demanding for a portable PC.
There is also the fact that older instant service games, e.g. counter strike, Dota 2and PUBG Already dominating Steam’s most popular charts, newer games have struggled to break through and build a player base.
Another reason is that Steam has released more than 200,000 games over the past few decades, and according to the data, the number of games released in 2024 is relatively small, only 18,000. steam database. Therefore, more users will naturally spend more time playing older games compared to more recent games.
Regardless, 15% of gaming time is dedicated to new games, compared to 2022’s statistic of 17%. This means the number is recovering after a sharp decline in 2023.