Godot Growth Stats
By Ena So • March 2026 • 4 min read
Godot has been exploding in popularity, and is the best game engine to get started with as a result.
TL;DR / Key Takeaways
- Games shipped on Steam with Godot are doubling each year. SteamDB shows 618 Godot games in 2023-24, 1,500 in 2024-25, and 2,864 in 2025-26.
- Google search interest is growing at 45% YoY — nearly 5x in 4 years — while Unity stayed flat.
- If these trends continue, the Godot ecosystem will double by 2028 and 5x by 2030.
Every Metric Points Up
SteamDB Games
4.6×
2024 → 2026
| Period | Games | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2023 – Mar 2024 | 618 | — |
| Mar 2024 – Mar 2025 | 1,500 | +143% |
| Mar 2025 – Mar 2026 | 2,864 | +91% |
Google Trends: Search Interest
Godot search interest has grown at a 45% compound annual growth rate since 2022 — nearly 5x in 4 years. In the same period, Unity search interest stayed flat and declined slightly.
| Year | Interest (% of peak) | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 21% | — |
| 2023 | 27% | +29% |
| 2024 | 60% | +122% |
| 2025 | 74% | +23% |
| 2026 | 95% | +28% |
GitHub Stars
The godotengine/godot repository has grown 21x over the past decade.
| Year | Stars | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 5,100 | — |
| 2021 | 39,800 | 7.8x from 2016 |
| 2026 | 107,726 | 21x from 2016 |
Reddit r/godot
Growth accelerated sharply in 2023-2024, coinciding with the Unity pricing controversy.
| Year | Subscribers | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 30,000 | — |
| 2024 | 155,000 | 5.2x from 2020 |
| 2026 | 296,000 | 9.9x from 2020 |
Steam Active Users
While most developers download Godot directly, the Steam editor version shows steady growth in average concurrent users:
| Year | Avg Online | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 450 | — |
| 2024 | 765 | +70% |
| 2025 | 1,100 | +44% |
Stack Overflow (Historical)
Before LLMs shifted developer Q&A patterns, Stack Overflow tags painted a clear growth picture:
| Year | Questions Tagged “Godot” | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 68 | — |
| 2019 | 140 | +106% |
| 2020 | 249 | +78% |
| 2021 | 396 | +59% |
| 2022 | 465 | +17% |
Looking Forwards
For folks who have been following Godot for a long time, you knew this was coming - It’s Godot’s time to shine. While Unreal may still hold the throne for massive studio games, Unity’s will slowly fade into irrelevance, and open source will tower above the rest.
For developers choosing an engine, the trend is clear: Godot’s ecosystem, community support, and tooling are expanding faster than any other game engine. The best time to start building with Godot was two years ago. The second best time is now.