However, it most likely will be able to achieve a new record in terms of sales in 2023.
Steam games market size is set to decline after growing by 74% over the last three years and reaching $6.6 billion in 2021. That's according to a recent report from Video Game Insights whose calculation includes sales of premium video games and does not take into account the in-game purchases.
The report reads that the Steam PC market has seen a 20% annual growth rate over the past three years, with an exceptional growth in 2020 when the market size increased by 31% due to the pandemic. In 2021, the market has also grown, although not that substantially – by 11% compared to the previous year.
In the first half of 2022, sales are still ahead of 2021 figures – they reach $3.1 billion compared to $3 billion generated during the same period last year. However, since April, the sales dynamics have started to slow down. The analysts attribute this to a number of factors including:
- pushing the dates of significant releases to the next year,
- the increasing availability of new-gen consoles;
- the decrease in consumers' spending power;
- losing revenue from the Russian market;
- and the loss of COVID boost.
Nonetheless, VG Insights also sees several positive trends that will continue to influence the Steam market. For instance, graphics cards are becoming more affordable due to the crash of the crypto market, and the games have slightly increased in price which can boost the industry's revenue. Besides, the analysts note the growing strength of indie games and the increasing attention of large publishers to Steam.
Although the analysts predict that 2022 will see a decline in the games industry, they believe the Steam market will be impacted less and while it will also see a decline in revenue in 2022, most likely it will be able to achieve a new record in terms of sales in 2023.