Valve has shared a blog post detailing how new releases have been performing over the last decade.
According to Valve:
- Over the years, there's been a continuous increase in the number of games achieving success on Steam.
- Earnings prospects for most - but not all - games improved in 2019.
The metric for success is whether or not a game earned $10,000 USD within the first two weeks of release. Most games earning $10,000 in the first two weeks earned between $20,000 and $60,000 over the following 12 months. Valve shows that in 2019, the number of games meeting this metric increased 18% over 2018. This graph shows the growth in number of games earning at least $10,000 in the first two weeks since 2005:
![](https://uploads.gamedev.net/news/monthly_2020_04/a58c4f11e4ff4cf1bd57cc5d07409751.a4970b9ef9ca42018ca05fe4d8be7cfbc3966d76.jpg)
They also noted the jump from 2013 to 2014, saying it reflects the increase in number of games accepted to Steam beginning in August 2013.
![](https://uploads.gamedev.net/news/monthly_2020_04/df13bd1739d4476294d2310e3d3f399f.232641a3f44b955827f42f77f52f0a2af5815578.jpg)
In addition to the blog post with more information, you can view the full methodology and more detailed graphs in the research appendix.