New games performed impressively on Steam last year, outperforming the previous year's statistics.
According to analysis by GamesDiscoverCo, there were more new games classified as released this year or the last year in Steam's Top 100 highest-grossing games chart than ever before - 31 new titles this year compared to just 24 the previous year. Notably, games released in 2025 generated significantly higher collective revenue than their predecessors.
Steam categorizes its games into four tiers based on revenue: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The Platinum tier is home to standard heavyweights like Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, and Apex Legends, but it also includes eight freshly released titles this year.
Among them are Monster Hunter Wilds, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Arc Raiders, Marvel Rivals, Battlefield 6, and the surprising drug-themed game Schedule 1, alongside the co-op horror game REPO. A technical update has allowed Call of Duty to be included among the new entries as well.
In the Gold tier, notable games include Borderlands 4, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Split Fiction, Elden Ring Nightrein, and the remastered version of The Elder Scrolls Oblivion, while the Silver tier boasts titles like Dune: Awakening and Silksong.
This trend is promising in an atmosphere traditionally dominated by familiar titles. Recent statistics revealed that PlayStation's most played games in 2025 remained unchanged from 2024, showcasing an ongoing tendency for the market to lean toward established live-service behemoths. While the 'most played' metric differs from the 'highest grossing' data, the overall implications indicate a stagnation attributed to these persistent titles.
Simon Carless from GameDiscoverCo commented on the Steam data, noting, "It's more front-loaded for recency than we expected. This could indicate that 2025 was an exceptionally strong year for new games." He suggested that significant discounts on perennial sellers may have hampered their revenue when compared to full-priced new releases.
Additional insights from GameDiscoverCo's research highlight that long-standing games like Warframe and Dead by Daylight have maintained their status as Gold-tier revenue generators for over four years now. Meanwhile, Baldur's Gate 3 retains its strong performance as a Gold-tier game, down from Platinum in prior years, alongside Cyberpunk 2077, which still enjoys Gold-tier status five years post-launch with 35 million copies sold.
One wonders which new titles will make the list next year...
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