After a record-breaking September, 'it's safe to say Steam's yearly revenue will blow past $20B for the first time'

Oct 02, 2026 - 07:14

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After a record-breaking September, 'it's safe to say Steam's yearly revenue will blow past $20B for the first time'

(Image credit: Valve)

The first six months of the year were Steam's biggest, thanks to continued growth in back-catalogue sales as well as blockbuster new releases like Forza Horizon 6 and Resident Evil Requiem. As industry analysts Alinea Analytics report, September was another record breaker based on their estimated figures.

"Steam generated $1.7 billion in September 2026," Rhys Elliott, Alinea's head of market analysis, wrote, "the platform's best September to date, up 13% on the previous record, September of last year."

Wardogs was the smash hit new release of September, though Elliott noted the "hype cycles and virality" of comparably leftfield surprises Arc Raiders and Helldivers 2 were more sustained. "By this point, Helldivers 2 had made $130M (26.5% more than Wardogs) on Steam, while Arc Raiders had made about $125M (21.2% more)."

Still, Wardogs generated an estimated $86.9M on Steam in September. Elliott highlights Onimusha: Way of the Sword ($30.4M), The Blood of Dawnwalker ($26.9M), Bodycam ($24.2M), and EA Sports FC27 ($20.7M) as the other big new launches on Steam that month.

"Steam also had its best-ever Q3," Elliott wrote, "generating $5.5B (up 12% on last year). That brings the 2026 total to $16.5B so far, a 13% increase from the $14.5B Steam made in the first nine months of 2025. Given the insane release slate for the rest of the year, it's safe to say Steam's yearly revenue will blow past $20B for the first time."

He's not wrong about the rest of the year. Looking at just October's calendar shows how spoiled for choice we are.

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Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.