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Key Insights
State of Free to Play on Steam in 2024
Video Game Insights~11 min full read
- 01
Free-to-play (FtP) games dominate Steam engagement, accounting for 51% of total hours played in 2023 despite being outnumbered by premium releases.
- 02
Market engagement is highly concentrated, with the top 25 FtP titles capturing 88% of all FtP activity and the top five titles holding nearly 60% of concurrent users.
- 03
The FtP sector is stagnant for new entrants, as the top ten FtP games have a mean age of seven years and only two new titles have broken into that tier since 2021.
- 04
FtP titles maintain a massive presence in the top-tier charts, occupying eight of the ten highest concurrent-user spots in 2023, with Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 leading the segment.
- 05
Premium titles are successfully eroding FtP market share, with games priced between $10 and $50 increasing their share of total playtime from 31% to 37% between 2021 and 2024.
- 06
High-budget premium releases priced over $50, such as Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy, are contributing to the compression of the FtP segment's dominance on the platform.
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