# How Much Do Indie Games Actually Make on Steam?

By Ziva.sh • March 2026 • 7 min read

## TL;DR / Key Takeaways
- Indie games generated **$4.4 billion** on Steam in 2025, 25% of the platform’s $17.7 billion total.
- The median indie game earned roughly **$249 in gross revenue**. After Valve’s 30% cut, that is $174.
- 5,863 games crossed $100K in annual revenue. That sounds good until you learn **19,000+ games launched the same year**.

## 01 / The Headline vs. Reality
Every article about indie games on Steam in 2025 leads with the same stat: indie titles earned [$4.4 billion in revenue](https://gameworldobserver.com/2025/12/22/indie-projects-generated-a-quarter-of-the-total-game-revenue-on-steam-by-the-end-of-2025-analytics), roughly 25% of Steam’s [$17.7 billion total](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Indie-games-accounted-for-25-of-Steam-s-revenue-in-2025.1189429.0.html).

But over [19,000 games launched on Steam in 2025](https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/joao-silva/steam-data-shows-over-19000-games-released-in-2025/). Nearly all of them are indie. Divide $4.4 billion by 19,000 and you get $231,000 per game, which nobody outside the top 1% actually sees.

The top five indie releases alone pulled in [over $500 million combined](https://gameworldobserver.com/2025/12/22/indie-projects-generated-a-quarter-of-the-total-game-revenue-on-steam-by-the-end-of-2025-analytics): Schedule I ($151M), R.E.P.O. ($147M), PEAK ($87M), Hollow Knight: Silksong ($75M), and Escape from Duckov ($53M). Five games, 3% of Steam’s annual revenue. Everyone else splits what is left.

## 02 / What the Median Game Earns
The median gross revenue for a game on Steam in 2025 was [$249](https://gamedevreports.substack.com/p/video-game-insights-indie-games-on). After [Valve’s 30% cut](/content/blogs/game-price-breakdown/index.html), the developer takes home about $174.

### WHERE INDIE GAMES LAND ON THE REVENUE CURVE
| Revenue Range | Percentage | Number of Games |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <$100 | 30.0% | ~5,700 games |
| $100–$1K | 36.0% | ~6,800 games |
| $1K–$50K | 24.0% | ~4,600 games |
| $50K–$1M | 9.5% | ~1,800 games |
| >$1M | 0.5% | ~95 games |

- **66%** of games earned less than $1,000
- **90%** earned less than $50,000
- Only 0.5% crossed $1 million in revenue

More than [5,000 games failed to earn even $100](https://abit.ee/en/games/steam-statistics-2025-valve-gdc-2026-indie-game-revenue-daily-deal-steam-steam-peak-players-en) across the entire year. The [bottom 30% of the catalog earned roughly $37 combined](https://abit.ee/en/games/steam-statistics-2025-valve-gdc-2026-indie-game-revenue-daily-deal-steam-steam-peak-players-en).

## 03 / The $100K Threshold
At [GDC 2026](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/valve-says-5-836-titles-earned-over-100-000-on-steam-in-2025), Valve announced that 5,863 games earned over $100,000 in 2025. They framed this as proof that “dramatically more games are finding success.” The number has nearly doubled from about 3,000 in 2020.

### MORE GAMES LAUNCHED, MORE HIT $100K, BUT THE RATIO BARELY MOVED

Developers pushed back. [Simon Carless estimated](https://kotaku.com/the-games-industry-reacts-to-valves-misleading-boast-about-how-few-profit-on-steam-2000679108) that only about 1,700 of those were games that actually launched in 2025. The rest were older titles still generating catalog revenue. That means roughly 8.5% of new releases hit the $100K mark.

And $100K in gross revenue leaves about $70,000 after Valve’s cut. A five-person team splits that into $14,000 each for a full year of work. As developer Mike Rose [put it](https://kotaku.com/the-games-industry-reacts-to-valves-misleading-boast-about-how-few-profit-on-steam-2000679108): “How many multi-person studios do you know that could survive after making $50K from their game launch?”

The number of releases per year has also doubled: [9,647 in 2020 versus roughly 19,000 in 2025](https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/joao-silva/steam-data-shows-over-19000-games-released-in-2025/). The pie grew, but the number of mouths grew faster.

## 04 / Who Gets the Money
[VG Insights breaks indie developers into four segments](https://gamedevreports.substack.com/p/video-game-insights-indie-games-on) based on 2024 data:

| Segment | Team size | Typical copies sold | Typical revenue | Share of indie revenue |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Triple-I | 50+ | 1M+ | $50M+ | 53% |
| Middle market | 15-50 | 200K-1M | ~$10M | 19% |
| Small teams | 3-15 | 20K-200K | ~$1M | 20% |
| Hobby devs | 1-2 | 2K-20K | ~$50K | 8% |

Triple-I studios captured 53% of all indie revenue in 2024. These are studios like Larian (Baldur’s Gate 3) and Game Science (Black Myth: Wukong). They self-publish, so they count as indie, but their budgets rival traditional AA.

The segment most people picture when they hear “indie” is small teams of 3-15 people. Even at the $1M gross mark, that is revenue before the platform cut, before taxes, before any publisher split, and before you divide it among the team.

Experience matters. A team’s third game averages about [$209,000 in gross revenue](https://gamedevreports.substack.com/p/video-game-insights-indie-games-on), compared to $168,000 for a second game and $120,000 for a debut. Your first game is the worst-performing one almost by default.

## 05 / The Discoverability Wall
Of 2025’s releases, nearly half received [fewer than 10 user reviews](https://80.lv/articles/steam-earned-usd16b-in-2025-but-nearly-half-of-19-000-games-got-under-10-reviews). About 2,200 received zero. Without reviews, Steam’s algorithm has no signal to recommend a game to anyone.

The games that break through tend to share a few traits:
- **Wishlists before launch matter.** The [median conversion rate](https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/p/the-state-of-steam-wishlist-conversions) from wishlists to first-week sales is about 0.15x for games launching with over 25,000 wishlists. A game with 10,000 wishlists at launch might sell 1,500 copies in week one. Games priced above $10 convert at a lower median of 0.10x.
- **Viral multipliers exist but are rare.** Co-op games like PEAK achieved [266x their expected conversion](https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/p/the-state-of-steam-wishlist-conversions) in 2025. For every viral hit, thousands of games convert at 0.07x or lower.
- **Daily Deals help if you qualify.** Valve’s Daily Deal system featured [1,500 games in 2025](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/valve-says-5-836-titles-earned-over-100-000-on-steam-in-2025), with 8.2 million customers purchasing through it. Developer revenue from Daily Deals grew 274% year-over-year. But getting featured requires having enough sales velocity that Valve notices you first.

## 06 / What This Means for You
Here is the math on a first release, using only the data above.

The median game earns [$249 gross](https://gamedevreports.substack.com/p/video-game-insights-indie-games-on). A debut title averages [$120,000](https://gamedevreports.substack.com/p/video-game-insights-indie-games-on), but averages are pulled up by outliers. A solo developer who spends two years on a first game and lands at the median has earned $174 after Valve’s cut. That is less than a day of freelance work.

The [cost to build a game](/content/blogs/game-development-cost/index.html) almost always exceeds what a first release earns. A third game from the same team averages $209,000, which at least starts to look like a living for 1-2 people. The pattern across the data: treat your first release as paid tuition, fund it from savings or a day job, and build your audience before you build your studio.

The one variable changing fastest is development cost. Tools that [speed up the build process](/content/blogs/best-ai-tools-for-godot-game-engine/index.html) bring the breakeven point closer, even if they do nothing for revenue.

## The bottom line
Steam’s indie market is larger than ever. $4.4 billion in 2025 is up from [$3.7 billion in 2024](https://gamedevreports.substack.com/p/video-game-insights-indie-games-on). But that growth goes overwhelmingly to a small number of games. The median developer earns almost nothing.