As published by independent Steam statistics site SteamDB, in 2023 Steam achieved a new milestone in the ever-expanding gaming industry with an astounding release of 14,535 games, a remarkable rise of about 2,000 titles from the previous year. According to data from market research firm Circana, the Nintendo Switch is the closest competition with 2,360 titles released in the same year, but this rise in game debuts on the platform considerably outpaces that of other challengers.
Over the past five years, there has been a notable rising trend in the number of games released on Steam. From 8,134 titles in 2019 to over 14,000 games released in the most recent year, the platform experienced incredible growth.
Eighty games have been released on the Steam shop in just the first few days of 2024, demonstrating that the pace is still strong. If this rate is continued throughout the year, around 29,000 games might be released on the platform by 2024.
There are a number of reasons behind the extraordinary spike in game launches on Steam. A key factor in enabling more creators to publish their works is the democratisation of game development tools. But issues have been brought up with Valve's laissez-faire curating strategy, which has made the platform more cumbersome. A lot of users bemoan the challenge of sorting through the deluge of new releases, believing that better games are frequently buried in the deluge of worse ones.
Similar issues have been reported with Nintendo's eShop, which, despite publishing over 2,000 titles in 2023, pales in compared to Steam's robust output. Nonetheless, the increasing amount of'shovelware' on the eShop has led calls for Nintendo to take more active measures in curating and preserving the quality of titles offered on their marketplace. As the gaming business evolves, the balance of quantity and quality in game releases remains a critical factor for both platforms and their respective user bases.
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