Steam: 38% of free-to-play players from US, China and Russia, older games do better

The company VG Insights recently published a report on the state of the free-to-play market on Steam in 2023, revealing that approximately 38% of players come from three countries: United States (15%), China (12%) and Russia (11%), with the most attractive titles remaining the most old.

Meanwhile, it is said that free-to-play games are the most played on the platform: they produced as much as 51% of playing time. Premium $10-$15 games follow with 31%, then the triple A, which stopped at 11%. Games that cost less than 10 dollars are at 8%.

Eight of the ten titles with the highest average concurrent users were free-to-play. In first place we find Counter-Strike 2, followed by Dota 2, Apex Legends, PUBG, The Finals, GTA V, Baldur's Gate 3Team Fortress 2, Rust and Call of Duty.

Baldur's Gate 3, in eighth position, is the only “fully premium” game on the list, i.e. the only triple A game sold at full price.

Two interesting facts: the first is that at the beginning of 2024 the premium segment gained market share thanks to the launch of Palworld and Helldivers 2; the second is that since 2021 the $50+ range, that of triple A, has gone from 5 to 12%, thanks to the launch of titles such as Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield and Baldur's Gate 3 and that of some console hits on Steam .

A stagnant market

However, free-to-play games remain dominant, with the paradox that there are fewer and fewer games that manage to emerge, despite increasingly frequent launches: the top 10 practically take 88% of players' interest, leaving the others just the crumbs. Furthermore, these are often old titles, on average from seven years ago. For example, Counter-Strike 2 alone has 25% of the platform's CCU, while titles such as Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2, which have been available for years, are still going strong. Older games take up around 61% of playtime, creating incredible saturation: since 2021, only four new free-to-play games have entered Steam's top 10 by number of players. Of these, only two: Naraka: Bladepoint and Call of Duty: Warzone, are still there.