Forty percent ofSteam’s top-performing games in 2025 have been indie or small-scale AA titles.Steamhas long been one of the most indie-friendly platforms, and in 2024 alone, it hosted 8,588 games from small and independent studios.
So far in 2025, 4,600 indie games have been published on Steam. If this pace continues, it could become the biggest year yet for independent developers. That said, things are already looking promising forsmall-scale games on Steam, with data suggesting they may soon overtake AAA titles on the platform.
As reported byTheGamer, eight of Steam’s 20 top-performing games in 2025 come from independent or small studios. SteamDB data confirms thatSchedule 1,R.E.P.O.,Bongo Cat,Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2,Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,Peak,Rematch, andSultan’s Gamehave all recorded some of the highest concurrent player counts this year. These titles are either the work of solo developers or small studios with limited budgets. Still, they’ve managed to compete withmajor 2025 releases likeMonster Hunter WildsandStellar Blade.
459,798
271,571
256,206
194,508
145,063
114,492
92,841
Sultan’s Game
46,106
According to areport by VG Insight, nearly 48% of Steam’s 2024 revenue came from indie games. That year, indie titles generated $4 billion in sales, and that figure doesn’t even include potential revenue from microtransactions. The same report also revealed that AAA and AA games made up only 1% of Steam’s 2024 releases, meaning nearly 99% of the platform’s new titles were indie.
It might still be too early to declare indie and AA games the definitive winners of the Steam charts in 2025, but based on recent trends, they’re clearly the odds-on favorites.Schedule 1alone has reportedly sold eight million copiesso far, generating nearly $125 million in revenue. Then there are titles likeClair Obscur: Expedition 33, which raised the bar for AA games by delivering an experience strong enough to potentially earn a Game of the Year award for the studio.
A quick look atSteam’s most wishlisted gamesfurther suggests that indie titles are on track to overtake AAA releases. Thelong-awaitedHollow Knight: Silksongtops the list, followed bySubnautica 2, an upcoming AA title. Many other games from small, independent studios are also on the list, reinforcing the idea that the dominance of AAA games is fading, at least on Steam.
