What percentage of game developer use a custom engine vs an existing one like Unreal and Unity. Show the progress ovcer time

The most recent industry data shows a decisive shift away from custom/proprietary engines toward commercial engines, with Unreal Engine surpassing Unity for the first time in 2026 at 42% vs. 30% of developers naming it their primary engine, while proprietary/in-house engine usage has fallen to 19% — down from roughly 30% in 2018 in some markets.5216

Custom / Proprietary Engine Usage Over Time

The decline of custom engines is one of the clearest long-term trends in the data, tracked across multiple sources and regions.

VG Insights — Steam market share by units sold (custom/other engines):

VG Insights states: "Many studios have announced moving from custom engines to UE for some of their games in the recent years and we expect that trend to continue."1

Netherlands Games Monitor — proprietary engine share:

The Netherlands report notes: "even fewer developers are deploying their own, proprietary engine. This share fell from about 30% in 2018 to 23% in 2021, and to 15% this year, a clear acceleration of a downward trend."6

Spain (DEV whitepaper) — proprietary engine share:

The Spanish whitepaper states: "Companies that choose to work with their own engine continue to decline, currently remaining at 9%."28

GDC State of the Game Industry — in-house/proprietary engine share:

Serbia — custom engine share:

Africa — proprietary engine share:

GameMakers article (2026) summarizes the trend: "Proprietary engines have dropped to 19%, with almost all of that in AAA. The tools to build a competitive game are available to anyone with a laptop."21

Unreal Engine Usage Over Time

Unreal Engine has shown steady growth across nearly every survey and market, culminating in its first-ever lead over Unity in the GDC 2026 survey.

GDC State of the Game Industry — Unreal as primary engine:

GDC's 2026 report states: "According to our survey, 42% of developers are using Unreal Engine and 30% are on Unity. This is the first time we've seen this discrepancy, as the previous two State of the Game Industry surveys had Unreal Engine and Unity sitting at a dead heat."5

VG Insights — Unreal share on Steam by units sold:

Perforce — Unreal usage across industries:

Netherlands — Unreal adoption:

The Netherlands report notes: "Unreal keeps growing its user base steadily, but less spectacularly than in the years between 2019 and 2021. In that period the percentage of Unreal-users in the Dutch game industry rose from 9 percent to 25."6

GameDiscoverCo (2026) — Steam all games scanned in 2025: Unreal at approximately 20% of total released games, rising to 22.5% among titles earning over $500k.12

Steam Next Fest February 2026 — Unreal at 17.9% of 3,500 featured games.34

Unity Engine Usage Over Time

Unity has remained the most widely used engine by raw game count on Steam and dominates mobile, but its share as a "primary engine" has declined in developer surveys.

GDC State of the Game Industry — Unity as primary engine:

Perforce — Unity usage across industries:

Perforce's 2023 report notes: "one notable finding is that the number of respondents using Unity drastically dropped from the previous year, with 50% of respondents using Unity in 2022."11

Xsolla (2024) — Unity as primary engine: 38% of game developers who use game engines.8

Mobile-specific (PocketGamer.biz, Winter 2024/25) — Unity at 65.7% of mobile developers, far ahead of Unreal at 22.4% and Godot at 8.2%.19

GameDiscoverCo (2026) — Steam all games scanned in 2025: Unity at 49.4% of total released games, rising to 53.7% among titles earning over $500k.12

Steam Next Fest February 2026 — Unity at 52.2% of 3,500 featured games.34

Brazil — Unity usage:

Africa — Unity usage:

Catalonia — Unity usage:

Godot as an Emerging Third Option

Godot has grown significantly, particularly among indie developers and game jams, though it remains far behind Unity and Unreal in commercial releases.

• GDC 2025: Godot at 4% as primary engine 4
• GDC 2026: Godot at approximately 5% as primary engine (from chart data: 42% Unreal, 30% Unity, 19% proprietary, 5% Godot) 5
• GameMakers (2026): "Godot is gaining traction with newer indie studios at 11%."21
• GMTK Jam 2026: "After 9 years of Unity dominance, Godot was the most used game engine for submissions: Godot - 47%; Unity - 34%; GameMaker - 5%; Unreal Engine - 3%"44
• Steam Next Fest Feb 2026: Godot at 9% of featured games 34
• GameDiscoverCo (2026): Godot at 7.1% of all Steam games in 2025, dropping to 4.1% among titles earning over $500k 12

Regional Comparison (Most Recent Data)

Key Drivers of the Shift

Unity's Runtime Fee controversy (2023): The Game Developer Collective's Tools & Services Survey (November 2024) found: "36% of Unity developers are still likely to switch engines for their next game, suggesting that Unity's decision to drop the runtime fee has done little to win back disillusioned users."36

Custom engine cost burden: The Game Development Renaissance report (2025) from Metaplay states: "In the past, studios had to build custom engines from scratch — an expensive, time-consuming process requiring dedicated teams for maintenance. Then Unity arrived, democratizing game development with accessible, multi-platform tools."41

Finland's engine landscape (2024): The Finnish game industry report notes: "Research and development of one's own game engine was a natural response, reducing risks and creating a clear competitive advantage... However