Steam's gaming revenue for September 2026 reached an estimated $1.7 billion, a record for the month. The estimate comes from the game market analytics firm Alinea Analytics, which published it on October 1, and it is 13% higher than September last year. The third quarter (July–September) came to an estimated $5.5 billion, up 12% year over year, bringing the cumulative total from the start of the year through September to $16.5 billion.
But the record was not driven only by buzzy new releases. A breakdown of the top sellers shows the strength of games that have been out for years, as well as free-to-play games that earn money through ongoing purchases.
Games released in earlier years make up about two-thirds of top-500 revenue
Among the top 500 titles by September revenue, games released in 2026 accounted for 33.6% of revenue. Those 500 titles alone make up roughly three-quarters of Steam's total September revenue, so the figure is a useful guide to what the top of the market looks like. It is not, however, the makeup of every game on Steam.
Working backward from Alinea's September 2026 estimate, games released in 2025 or earlier account for 66.4% of top-500 revenue. That figure is simply 100% minus the 33.6% for 2026 releases. Rounding in the original percentage could introduce a small error, but it shows that older games generate roughly two-thirds of revenue among top sellers.
A separate breakdown looks at whether a game belongs to an existing franchise. New IP released in 2026 made up 20.5% of top-500 revenue. Existing IP accounted for 79.5%, of which 3.8% came from remakes and remasters.
| Classification | Category | Share of top-500 revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Release year | Released in 2026 | 33.6% |
| Release year | Released in 2025 or earlier | 66.4% (calculated from the above) |
| IP | New IP released in 2026 | 20.5% |
| IP | Existing IP | 79.5% |
| Sales model | Free-to-play games | 25.6% |
The source is Alinea's September estimate. All figures use the top 500 titles' revenue as the denominator, but they classify games along different lines (release year, IP and sales model), so the rows cannot be added together. A sequel released in 2026, for example, counts under both "released in 2026" and "existing IP." Reading the new-IP share as the share of all new releases would misrepresent the picture.
New hits and big updates to older games overlap
Among paid games, Wardogs took first place for September with estimated revenue of $86.9 million. Onimusha: Way of the Sword followed with $30.4 million and The Blood of Dawnwalker with $26.9 million. According to Alinea, the top ranks include new entries in existing series as well as new IP.
| Game | Estimated Steam revenue, September 2026 | Release timing / sales model |
|---|---|---|
| Wardogs | $86.9 million | Early Access began September 10 |
| Onimusha: Way of the Sword | $30.4 million | Released September 4 |
| The Blood of Dawnwalker | $26.9 million | Released September 3 |
| Bodycam | $24.2 million | Early Access began in 2024 |
| How to Fish | $19.3 million | Released late August, base price $7.99 |
The source is Alinea. All revenue figures are for sales generated on Steam in September and differ from cumulative revenue that includes pre-launch purchases. Just below the big new releases sit a game that has been in Early Access for years and a low-priced title, so there is more than one route to high revenue.
Bodycam in particular had its biggest month yet in September, surpassing the estimated $16 million it earned in the month Early Access began. In its September 2 update announcement, developer Reissad Studio said it had added a loadout system for customizing equipment and new trench-themed content, along with revamped animations and sound.
The revenue growth coincided with a major update to an already released game that gave players more reasons to return. That said, no one has measured whether the update alone caused the increase. Even so, it is a concrete example showing that sales of games that have been out for a while do not necessarily just decline.
Free-to-play games are also generating large revenue. Alinea estimates that four titles alone, Counter-Strike 2, Apex Legends, PUBG and Dota 2, earned about $168 million combined in September, roughly 10% of Steam's total September revenue. In the top-500 tally, free-to-play games were 16% of titles but 25.6% of revenue.
Free games ranking high in revenue is not a contradiction. Valve explains that its official Steam sales rankings are determined by gross revenue, which includes not just the game itself but also DLC and in-game transactions. Looking only at the purchase price of the game itself would miss the ongoing revenue that free-to-play games generate.
Conversely, high unit sales do not translate directly into revenue rankings. According to Alinea's estimate, The Blood of Dawnwalker sold more than 535,000 copies on Steam, making Steam the largest platform by unit sales. Yet in cumulative revenue, the PS5 version topped $40 million against $30.6 million for Steam, so the PS5 came out ahead in dollar terms.
Alinea attributes this to regional pricing and to the differing share of console players in higher-priced markets. Even for a single copy sold, its contribution to revenue changes depending on the region and the price at which it sells.
The $1.7 billion cannot be read as Valve's profit
The $1.7 billion figure is an external estimate by Alinea, not earnings Valve has reported. Nor can the revenue games generate on Steam be equated with Valve's profit or with the amount developers receive.
Valve's Steamworks payments FAQ spells out the difference. The sales information available on the Steamworks partner site at any time is gross revenue, from which returns, chargebacks, taxes and the like have not yet been deducted. In the monthly report, various adjustments are subtracted to arrive at net revenue, and the contractual revenue-share rate is then applied to calculate the payment to the developer side.
In other words, gross revenue recorded on Steam is not the same as the final share going to Valve or the developer.
That said, Valve's accounting treatment cannot simply be applied to Alinea's estimation method. Alinea's article does not explain in detail how taxes and refunds are factored into its estimates, and it gives no margin of error for the monthly total.
In its description of its own service, Alinea says users can compare its estimates against results released by publishers and others. The article also cites an example: when 3 million copies sold of Wardogs was announced, Alinea's estimate had been 3.02 million.
However, that is a case where the estimate and the announced figure were close for one title's unit sales, and it does not guarantee the accuracy of the $1.7 billion total for Steam in September. It is reasonable to treat the number as an estimate for gauging the market's size and composition, separate from confirmed revenue.
A growing market does not necessarily make new releases easier to sell
Titles ranked 101–1000 on Steam's 2026 revenue chart are not necessarily all small or mid-sized new releases either. In a separate analysis published on September 3, Alinea found that, based on revenue from the start of the year to that point, 83% of those 900 titles were released before 2026. Titles with more than $50 million in lifetime Steam revenue accounted for 51% of this group's 2026 revenue.
The time of measurement and scope differ from the September top-500 data, so the numbers cannot be compared directly. Still, the finding that many past big hits remain even in the middle of the rankings matters for understanding what new releases are actually competing against.
Games that have been out for a while, whether discounted or expanded with major updates, are chosen by players in the same Steam storefront as new releases. That overall market revenue has grown does not mean newly released games have become easier to sell.
The analysis alone also cannot tell us how changes in the price of PCs and components are affecting players' game spending. Rising total software revenue and players finding it easy to upgrade their PCs are separate matters.
What this estimate shows is that premium new releases, older games that keep getting updates and the recurring spending in free-to-play games are each generating substantial revenue within the same Steam market.
Alinea's Rhys Elliott, factoring in upcoming releases, forecasts that Steam's full-year 2026 revenue will top $20 billion for the first time. That is not yet an actual year-end result.
To see where this goes, it will be necessary to track not only sales immediately after major new releases, but also how long existing games keep selling after updates and whether new IP can retain players after the initial launch. Knowing how much of Steam's growth rests on long-term operation rather than launch-window hits would also give developers a basis for judging how much post-launch updates and live operations are worth investing in.