As the price of computer components rises, user spending on games on Steam continues to grow. September 2026 was the best September in the platform’s history, with game and in-game content sales reaching $1.7 billion, according to Alinea Analytics. This is 13% higher than the previous monthly record set in September 2025.
Image source: Valve
The third season also set a record for the third season. Revenue for the three months was approximately $5.5 billion, up 12% year over year. Steam sales are estimated at $16.5 billion in the first nine months of 2026, up from $14.5 billion in the same period last year. These amounts reflect sales on the site, not revenue from Valve’s settlement with the publisher.
Among the top 500 highest-grossing Steam games in September, projects based on new IP released in 2026 accounted for 20.5% of revenue. Existing game series and other previously released projects accounted for 79.5%, with remakes and remasters accounting for 3.8%. Additionally, all games released in 2026, including sequels to well-known series, provided 33.6% of the sample’s revenue.
Image source: Alinea Analytics
September’s most successful premium games included several major new titles. According to Alinea, “War Dogs”, which was released in early access on September 10, earned approximately $86.9 million on Steam that month, “Onimusha: Kendo” earned $30.4 million, and “Blood of the Dawn Walker” earned $26.9 million. These figures do not include revenue from sales on other platforms.
Free-to-play games remain an important part of Steam’s business. The combined revenue of “Counter-Strike 2”, “Apex Legends”, “PUBG” and “Dota 2” alone in September was close to $168 million, accounting for approximately 10% of the platform’s total projected revenue for the month.
The number of game releases on Steam is also approaching a new annual record. As of October 1, 20,220 new projects have been added to the platform since the beginning of the year. Another 1,156 are scheduled for release in October. If released as scheduled, the total number will reach 21,376, exceeding the total number of 21,268 games released on Steam in 2025.
Therefore, the increase in the cost of building a gaming PC has not been accompanied by a decrease in the overall cost of Steam games. Given a busy launch schedule before the end of the year, Alinea expects the platform’s annual sales revenue to exceed $20 billion for the first time.
If you find an error, select it with your mouse and press CTRL+ENTER.
