Slay the Spire
37 documents in the library are about Slay the Spire, from writers such as Extra Credits, Alinea Analytics and GameDiscoverCo, the newest from 2026. Each has a summary and key insights with the page they come from.
Slay the Spire is a single-player roguelike deck-building game. Players choose from four characters, each with a unique set of cards, and attempt to climb a procedurally generated spire consisting of multiple floors of increasingly difficult enemies and bosses. Combat uses a card-based system where players build and refine their deck on the fly from rewards earned through encounters. Between battles, players collect relics that provide permanent buffs and make strategic choices about which paths to take, which cards to add or remove, and how to spend limited resources. The game is widely credited with popularizing the roguelike deck-building genre.
- Released
- Jan 23, 2019
- Developer
- Mega Crit Games
- Publisher
- Humble Games
- Genres
- Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Adventure, Indie, Card & Board Game
- Platforms
- PlayStation 4, Linux, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Mac, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Links
- Official site, Wikipedia
Game data from IGDB.com
Key figures
The deck-building genre represents a massive growth opportunity, evidenced by Slay the Spire increasing its revenue from $53 million to $140 million in a single quarter, with projections reaching $250 million by year-end.
Two & a Half Gamers, 2026 · 🎮 Full Steam Ahead: The Q1 Steam games that should hit mobile, p. 28
Steam’s user review sentiment is heavily skewed by regional demographics, as seen with Slay the Spire 2 where Simplified Chinese players—representing 44.5% of the user base—gave the game a 60% positive rating, compared to over 90% for other language groups.
Alinea Analytics, 2026 · March’s Top Steam Games: Indies, AAA, Early Access, and Revivals
Within 14 days of its Steam launch, Slay the Spire 2 generated over $92 million in revenue from 4.6 million copies sold.
Game World Observer, 2026 · Slay the Spire 2 Surpasses Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades II in Revenue on Steam
Strategic Steam bundles with established titles like Slay the Spire and Brotato accounted for approximately 35% of total sales.
GameDiscoverCo, 2024 · How Backpack Battles Sold 650k Copies in Its First Month
Replayability is a critical driver of long-term success, evidenced by roguelites like Slay the Spire, where 40% of players log over 50 hours of playtime.
GameDiscoverCo, 2021 · What Players Wish Nintendo Would Fix for Switch Discovery
Documents about Slay the Spire
Design Club: Shroom and Gloom!
Shroom and Gloom represents a significant evolution in the roguelike deckbuilder genre by subverting established conventions popularized by titles like Slay the Spire.
- Shroom and Gloom utilizes a dual-deck system that separates combat cards from exploration and survival cards, creating a strategic interplay between the two mechanics.
- The game replaces traditional block mechanics with a health-management system where healing is tied to specific kill conditions, such as 'if fatal' effects, forcing players to plan turns around securing specific eliminations.
- The game features 'evolving' cards that become more powerful after being lodged in an enemy and returned to the player's hand upon the enemy's death.
🎮 Full Steam Ahead: The Q1 Steam games that should hit mobile
Mobile gaming currently suffers from a stagnation of creative concepts, relying heavily on the adaptation of successful mechanics pioneered on the Steam platform.
- The deck-building genre represents a massive growth opportunity, evidenced by Slay the Spire increasing its revenue from $53 million to $140 million in a single quarter, with projections reaching $250 million by year-end.
- High-performing Q1 Steam titles demonstrate that unique gameplay loops—such as physics-based puzzles, room-cleaning simulations, and roguelike variations of traditional gambling games—are prime candidates for mobile adaptation.
- Mobile gaming currently relies on adapting successful Steam mechanics to overcome creative stagnation and drive user acquisition.
Top Games by Copies Sold: H1 2026
The first half of 2026 highlights a significant shift in the gaming industry, characterized by the rise of low-fi social games and a definitive move toward a digital-only future for console platforms.
- Meccha Chameleon is 2026's top game by copies sold across Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation combined, with nearly 13 million units sold despite being Steam-only and launching three weeks ago. Its $5 launch price (later $6) resulted in over $58M in gross revenue, making it the #18 game by Steam revenue this year.
- Sony has announced that new PlayStation games will be digital-only starting January 2028, eliminating physical discs. This move is driven by Sony's desire for greater control over pricing and revenue, as disc resales and rentals do not generate income for the platform holder.
- Resident Evil Requiem has sold 7.6 million copies across PS5 (46%), Steam (45%), and Xbox (9%), nearing half a billion dollars in gross revenue. It continues to sell well, with almost 400,000 copies sold last month alone, contributing to Capcom's catalog revenue.
Exploring A New Kind of Roguelite: Moonsigil Atlas | Design Club
The roguelite deckbuilder genre has reached a point of saturation following the success of titles like Slay the Spire, leading developers to seek innovation by moving away from traditional mana-based economies and linear resource management.
- Moonsigil Atlas differentiates itself from the saturated roguelite deckbuilder market by replacing traditional mana-based economies with a spatial, grid-based combat system.
- The core gameplay requires players to physically place and rotate cards on a board, shifting the strategic focus from damage output to geometry and tactical positioning.
- Players manage board presence through unique mechanics like sigils for ongoing effects, defensive wards for damage mitigation, and Eternal cards that remain on the board.
How Old Are Your Players, and Does It Matter for Discovery?
The piece investigates the average age of Steam players for games released after January 2020 that have sold over 25,000 copies, using a 10,000-sample survey called the Steam Fan Snapshot.
- The median age of Steam players for games released after January 2020 with over 25,000 sales is 33, confirming that older players constitute the core demographic.
- Games with an average player age of 36 typically feature single-player and strategy tags, while those averaging 28 years old are five times more likely to feature multiplayer tags.
- High-average-age titles are predominantly single-player, strategy-heavy, or retro games like Titan Quest and Songs of Conquest that appeal to users with long PC histories.
Steam DLC Data: High Attach Rates for 2026 Roguelike DLC
The roguelike genre on Steam demonstrates exceptionally high player engagement and monetization potential, characterized by DLC attach rates that significantly outperform the industry baseline.
- Roguelike DLC on Steam is achieving significantly higher attach rates than the genre-wide baseline, with four major 2026 releases each exceeding 100,000 units sold.
- The 'Barony: Deserters & Disciples' DLC achieved a 19% attach rate, selling nearly 200,000 units and generating $1.2M in gross revenue since its January 2026 launch.
- Pricing for successful roguelike DLC remains at or below $10, with the highest-performing title by attach rate, 'Monster Train 2', priced at the top of this range and achieving a 21% attach rate.
April’s Top Games by Copies Sold
The April 2026 gaming market analysis provides a performance overview of top-selling titles across Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox.
- Windrose led April 2026 sales with 1.7 million units sold in its debut month, despite being available only on Steam.
- Crimson Desert maintained strong momentum two months post-launch, selling an additional 1.6 million copies in April across Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox.
- Slay the Spire 2 sold 1 million copies in April while in early access, bringing its total to 6.4 million units and $130 million in gross revenue.
April Roundup: User Reviews Land on the Web Appstore, Big New Game Support Arrives
The April 2026 Overwolf developer update outlines key platform enhancements, expanded game support, and strategic industry engagement initiatives.
- Overwolf has expanded its technical support to 22 new games, including major titles like Slay the Spire 2—which reached over 574,000 concurrent players—and Crimson Desert.
- User reviews have been migrated from the client-side appstore to the web-based appstore, with this functionality now extended to Electron-based applications.
- New support links have been introduced to the web appstore to improve direct communication channels between developers and their user bases.
Weekly Gaming Reports Recap: April 13 - April 17, 2026
This industry update synthesizes key performance metrics and market trends across the mobile, PC, console, and Roblox sectors for the period spanning 2025 through early 2026.
- Mobile gaming revenue plateaued in 2025 with $81.8 billion in in-app purchases, representing 55% of total industry revenue despite only 1% growth in global session counts.
- Roblox bookings surged 55% to $6.8 billion in 2025 with 126.5 million daily active users, though the ecosystem remains highly concentrated with three games accounting for over 70% of visits among the top 10 titles.
- Mobile marketing costs have spiked, with global Cost per Install (CPI) rising 30% year-over-year to $0.56 and the median paid-to-organic install ratio increasing by 61%.
Action & Strategy: 2026 Gaming Trends
The 2026 gaming landscape reveals a significant divergence between PC/console platforms and mobile markets within the Action and Strategy genres.
- Action and Strategy titles on Steam are experiencing significant year-over-year growth in both downloads and revenue, driven by technically ambitious premium titles like Battlefield 6, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and ARC Raiders.
- Mobile publishers are shifting focus from user acquisition to monetization and engagement of existing core players, resulting in declining download volumes but improved revenue performance.
- Mobile RPG revenue has declined for four consecutive years, signaling that the traditional gacha monetization model is losing efficacy.
What Does a Nintendo Game Cost in 2026? -OR- Should Physical Games Cost More? | Games For Breakfast
The gaming industry is currently undergoing a structural transformation characterized by the erosion of price parity between physical and digital media.
- Nintendo is decoupling physical and digital pricing by setting physical editions at $70 while keeping digital versions at $60, signaling a shift away from traditional retail price parity.
- Publishers are increasingly adopting $70 as the new industry baseline for physical media to offset supply chain costs and the declining influence of brick-and-mortar retailers.
- The gaming industry is experiencing structural instability due to the high costs of generative AI, corporate consolidation, and the failure of growth-focused initiatives like OpenAI’s Sora.
March’s Top Steam Games: Indies, AAA, Early Access, and Revivals
This analysis examines the March 2026 Steam sales landscape, highlighting a diverse market where indie titles, early-access projects, and AAA games coexist through distinct consumer behaviors.
- Steam’s user review sentiment is heavily skewed by regional demographics, as seen with Slay the Spire 2 where Simplified Chinese players—representing 44.5% of the user base—gave the game a 60% positive rating, compared to over 90% for other language groups.
- Pearl Abyss successfully salvaged the launch of Crimson Desert through agile community management, with positive sentiment rising from 31% for players with under one hour of playtime to 93% for those with over 25 hours following a rapid apology and a major patch on March 28.
- Capcom’s Steam-first strategy effectively monetizes back-catalog titles, as evidenced by Resident Evil 3 (2020) selling nearly one million copies in March 2026, driven primarily by a 90% discount that generated $8 million in revenue.