Steam just had its most profitable period in its entire 22-year history, raking in $11 billion in the last six months — and it’s mostly thanks to older games.
As shown in data aggregated by Alinea Analytics, this figure rivals what the platform grossed in the whole of 2020 during the peak of the pandemic ($7.2 billion), and much of it was due to purchases of older video games.
In fact, only 21% of purchases from January – June were for titles released in 2026. That means a whopping 79% of games bought by players were from 2025 or older. This trend has only been increasing in recent years, with just 29% of 2024 revenue coming from games released that year, and 27% in 2025 from that year’s titles.
Alinea Analytics’ breakdown of games purchased on Steam in the last six months show that titles released in 2026 made up the platform’s biggest earners thus far, with Forza Horizon 6, Resident Evil Requiem, and Crimson Desert taking the top three spots, earning $197.6M, $194.5M, and $190.1M, respectively.
While these are the most-purchased games on Steam in 2026, it seems a bevy of releases from years past are making up the bulk of its revenue right now.
As told by Rhys Elliott in the Alinea Insights Newsletter, several trends are to thank for this explosive six month period: a surge of new users in Asia (specifically China), new games selling for higher prices, co-op titles like Meccha Chameleon (Steam’s sixth most-purchased game this year) going viral, third-party publishers switching back to Steam after attempting to peddle their own launchers, and more publishers re-releasing their back catalogues of older games.
Steam’s 2026 earnings have already nearly outpaced what it made in 2021 ($11.4 billion), with Elliott stating the platform has almost quintupled its half-year revenue in ten years.
With the Steam Machine’s release on the horizon, we could be looking at a massively dominant year for the company as more consoles edge toward digital-only releases.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
