3w ago

Only 15% of all Steam users' time was spent playing games released in 2024

www.pcgamer.com Only 15% of all Steam users' time was spent playing games released in 2024

Steam's end-of-year review of what we play and how we play makes for some interesting reading.

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makes sense, most games came out before 2024
- About... 85% would you say?
  
  A lot more than that.
- forehead

Headline says 'only', but the article says that's actually an increase from last year.
- of course it is; 0% of players in 2023 played games released in 2024.
  
  Well technically with early access games, it would be >0%. Although they didn't know that back in 2023...
  
  I played like 20 hrs of satisfactory last year lol.
  However the joke was good so imma let it slide.
  This time.
  /s
- Hell, I'm surprised it is over 10% with how many of the most popular games have been around for years.
  
  Even one of the biggest releases of this year was a DLC to Elden Ring, which means the actual game is still a few years old
  
  My guess is that Palworld and Helldivers 2 carried a good chunk of that time. I was going to mention Factorio Space Age, but it would just track time for base game. Satisfactory has been in early access for a long time, but officially released 1.0 this year as well, I wonder how that'd count.

Up from 9% last year tho...
There's a huge backlog of PC games and a lot that just play their favorites and that's it.
- I basically only have games that cost less than $5 on a sale. The prices for new games are ridiculous generally. $100 for something that will take a year to get the bugs fixed? Only suckers buy new games.
  
  Patient Gamers represent!
  
  There are pros and cons to everything. You get to play before the game gets spoiled in GOTY podcasts. You can play a multiplayer game when the most people are playing, before the game has been "solved".
- 9% played 2024 games in 2023?

i always wait until the games are actually done (and priced reasonably), and that means nowadays that yeah, no 2024 games.

I'm the guy who is consistently picking up old games that he's always wanted when they go on a steam sale years later for single digits. So I'm constantly three or four (or more years) behind. And I don't really mind because I'm always a single player who doesn't enjoy any form of online multiplayer.
So do I care that I only last month picked up EU4 and a bunch of DLC for cheap, not one bit. Same for Civ 6.
I'll happily chug away at my old games that no one cares about anymore.
- I started Civ6 this year too, got it for like 10 dollarydos
- You're not alone.

Factory gamers were eating good this year.
- I don't know what factory I am supposed to grow this week.
  
  Space. Obviously space.
- Same with simulators in general like flight/military/factory/etc
- Factorio released an expansion and Satisfactory hit 1.0 after a long (and excellent) early access campaign. Dobwe count either as a 2024 game?
  
  I wouldn’t but I’m not in charge of anything. I was wearing a factorio t-shirt many years ago and I think that makes it “out” even if it’s not done.

Looking through the sale trying to find ANY game that holds an interest for me... Any suggestions? Seems like a lot of trash lately.
- Great games that came out in 2024:
  UFO 50
  Peglin
  ANIMAL WELL
  Balatro
  2024 games that I haven't tried yet but seem promising:
  Pepper Grinder
  Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom
  Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
  Rabbit and Steel
  Another Crab's Treasure
  Felvidek
  All are in no particular order. Dunno if you'll like those but these ones come to mind :)
  
  Rabbit and Steel
  I haven't had a chance to properly play it in coop, but I tried Rabbit and Steel and it is really fun.
  
  Thanks! Bought and played a lot of UFO50 already, I liked it. Bought and loved Balatro as well! I'll have to look into the others. Thanks again!
  
  Another Crabs Treasure.
  Oof. Wanted to love it. Wanted it to be SpongeBob like but with dark souls but timing is weird. The game is buggy. Fights don't feel satisfying and it's somehow too fast and too slow but people keep telling me to just turn on God mode and it will be fun... But then it's not a game it's a power trip.
  I would skip it. I think it got hyped up the way that Stray did without being a great game just a great concept to talk about.
- Is Nine Sols in the sale? GOTY for me. Got overlooked by a lot of awards.
  
  Nine Sols is squarely in the "good but not fun" category for me. It is well executed but I did not enjoy most of it. Also the story is a bummer.
  I reinstalled Sekiro after finishing it to see if my memory was rose tinted. No, sekiro is still like music. Even cleared the "you should lose this fight" tutorial boss.
- STALKER 2 is okay. Yeah I aint got nothing else besides high grade Slav jank.
  
  It's apparently got a major patch to make it good recently! I plan on getting it next payday because of that
- It really depends on what you like.
  Satisfactory was a lot of fun for me but others might not like it.
  Stalker 2 the same.
  I'm a big Total War nut also.
  And Veilguard was good if a little watered down.
  
  Okay well part of the problem is that I've already bought most of the games that seem interesting. Already 100% done with Satisfactory, great game!
  Burnt out on total war games, not sold on Stalker 2 yet.
- I’ve gone through spells like this. I currently have more games to buy and play than I have time, but I’m a bit behind.
  What do you like?
  I saw in another comment you played satisfactory. Check out Shapez 2. Its a no pressure fun factory game.
  
  Thanks for the recommendation! I play a lot of different styles of games. Roguelikes, factory building, survival, FPS, RPG, Arcade, RTS, ect and sundry.
- Same. Yesterday I searched through Switch, PS5, GoG and Steam to find something to play during the holidays.
  I think I’ll just track down the Wii game "The Last Story" I never got to play.

One sale just ended and there's another... Where am I supposed to get time to play when I'm busy buying them?

I hope this article isn't because the industry might consider shifting to a complete subscription model, I really can't afford the rising cost of new games on release or overpriced subscription models.

I’m surprised it is that high.

Seems reasonable to me. What percentage of games on steam have been released in 2024? Gotta be a smoll percentage. Actually, 15 percent seems pretty high now that you mention.
"A whooping 15 percent" seems like a better title.

Usually TF2 is up here too depending on the seasonal update rotation.

I think all I played this year was Helldivers 2
- balatrooooo

STALKER 2 is the only new game I think I bought this year

That's because most new games either suck the butt or made by assholes, or both

I actually played a fuck ton of new games and early access beta tests this year (34% of all playtime according to steam replay)

Only recent games I’ve bought are helldivers 2, battlebit, and ready or not. All went bad sadly
- Helldivers2 still keeps me coming back and even gets better. What don’t you like about it?

I want to get Still Wakes the Deep but for what is apparently a pretty short game I'll be waiting for a better discount. that's about the only 2024 game I've been interested in

I've also been playing games that haven't been released yet.
Has there ever been an extraction shooter that released?

And that's a biased statistic. My recap shows I spent 1% of my time playing games released in 2024 when I know, for a fact, that I didn't. Upon further investigation, I found that it was counting my play time in Palworld as 1% even though it still shows as "0 minutes" because I literally only opened it to check that it worked.

I don't think I played any games from 2024. Scratch that, I have played a bit of rivals

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