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Video Game Insights | Game Industry Library

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Video Game Insights

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8 documents

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The Importance of Wishlists in 2025: Do Wishlists Matter?

Steam wishlists are a primary indicator of commercial success, showing a 70% correlation between pre-launch counts and first-month unit sales.
The 100,000-wishlist threshold is the critical benchmark required to reliably forecast a breakout performance for a new title.
The vast majority of games launch with fewer than 10,000 wishlists, reflecting a highly top-heavy distribution of pre-launch momentum.

Market Analysis Marketing User Acquisition+3

Video Game InsightsJan 2025

The Big Game Engine Report of 2025

The share of Steam releases powered by custom in-house engines plummeted from over 70% in 2012 to 13% in 2024.
Custom engines have fallen below 50% of total unit sales for the first time, currently accounting for 42% of the market.
Unity remains the volume leader, powering 51% of all Steam releases in 2024, primarily dominating the 'Tiny' and 'Small' categories under 100k units.

Game Engines Market Analysis PC

Video Game InsightsJan 2025

The Big Game Engine Report: End of the Era of In-House Engines

Proprietary in-house engine usage has declined significantly, accounting for only 13 percent of new game releases by 2024.
Unreal Engine has become the industry standard for high-budget AAA productions, particularly following the release of Unreal Engine 5.
Unity maintains the highest total volume of game releases, primarily driven by adoption among indie and smaller-scale developers.

Market Analysis Game Engines Game Development+3

Video Game InsightsJan 2025

Global Indie Games Market Report 2024

Indie games have reached a historical milestone, doubling their revenue share since 2018 to match the combined earnings of AA and AAA titles on Steam.
High-budget 'Triple I' projects, defined as teams of over 50 people, now generate more than half of all indie market revenue.
Market wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top, as 2024 hits Black Myth: Wukong and Palworld sold 20.6 million and 20.1 million units respectively.

Market Analysis Monetization

Video Game InsightsSept 2024

State of Free to Play on Steam in 2024

Free-to-play (FtP) games dominate Steam engagement, accounting for 51% of total hours played in 2023 despite being outnumbered by premium releases.
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.
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.

Market Analysis Steam Global+1

Video Game InsightsJan 2024

Rise of the Co-Op Games

Cooperative games significantly outperform the market, accounting for 36% of all units sold on Steam in 2023 despite representing only 6% of total releases.
The average co-op game on Steam sells 40,000 units, which is eight times the 5,000-unit average achieved by non-cooperative titles.
Market success is highly concentrated, with Palworld alone accounting for nearly half of the 40 million co-op units sold during the first half of 2024.

Market Analysis Steam Co-op+1

Video Game InsightsJan 2024

Global PC Games Market Report 2024

The global PC gaming market is highly concentrated, with the top 10 games generating 61% of total revenue and the top 100 titles capturing 91% of the market share.
In 2023, the PC market reached $9 billion in revenue from 580 million units sold on Steam, marking a recovery from stagnation between 2020 and 2022.
Consumer preference shifted toward high-quality, story-focused premium titles, causing them to outperform live-service models during the 2023 period.

Market Analysis Market Forecast

Video Game InsightsJan 2024

State of Free-to-Play on Steam in 2024

Free-to-play titles dominate Steam engagement, accounting for 51% of all player hours despite representing only a small fraction of the platform's total game library.
The F2P market is highly consolidated, with the top 25 titles capturing 88% of all F2P playtime.
Market entry is increasingly difficult, as the average age of a top-ten F2P game is seven years, and only two new titles have successfully maintained a top-ten position over the last three years.

Market Analysis Monetization Steam

Video Game InsightsJan 2024