The Big Game Engine Report of 2025
The report examines the evolution of game engine usage on Steam from 2012 to 2024, focusing on three engine categories: tier‑1 public engines (Unreal Engine and Unity), other third‑party engines (GameMaker, Godot, Ren’Py), and proprietary in‑house engines. Data from over 13,000 Steam titles reveal that Unity remains the most common engine for new releases, accounting for more than half of all games launched in 2024. However, Unreal Engine has steadily captured a larger share of units sold, surpassing Unity in 2024 with 31% of sales versus Unity’s 26%. Custom engines still dominate high‑volume titles, yet their share has fallen from 70% of releases in 2012 to just 13% in 2024, and from over half of units sold in 2014 to less than 50% in 2024. Unreal Engine’s adoption accelerated with UE5, which now powers 72% of all Unreal projects in 2024 and is behind several high‑profile releases such as *Black Myth: Wukong* and *Palworld*. Smaller engines like Godot have shown modest growth, primarily in indie and niche genres. The methodology relies on VGI’s tagging of Steam titles and sales estimation algorithms, covering games that have sold at least 1,000 units. The report projects continued migration from custom engines to Unreal by 2030, while Unity is expected to face increasing competition from Godot and GameMaker in lower‑budget segments.
