Steam has made a top-heavy $15 billion in gross revenue so far this year according to Alinea Analytics market analysis lead Rhys Elliott – and Crimson Desert was its most lucrative new IP by far.
Elliott describes Steam as "Valve's functional monopoly on the PC market" in a new Substack post breaking down its 2026 earnings, which are up around 15% from 2025. Actually, Steam appears to be on track for a historic payday; Elliott explains, "The first eight months of this year have already leapfrogged 2023's total. This year will almost certainly end well above $20 billion for the first time."
Our mortal world is pre-GTA 6, a game some hysterical experts predict to sell up to 30 million copies at launch, at $80 a piece, so there was no one game that multiplied Steam's ludicrous amount of cash this year. However, Alinea does identify a couple of major influences, including Forza Horizon 6 (estimated to have made $210.5 million on Steam), Crimson Desert ($203.3 million), and Resident Evil Requiem ($200.9 million). The only other brand new IP to crack Steam's list of top six earners was Meccha Chameleon, which held its own with approximately $89.8 million, but hardly came close to toppling Crimson Desert's unprecedented success.
"But yeah, in total, these six games make up a little under $1B of 2026's Steam gross revenues so far, accounting for about 6.6%," Elliott says. Though, "It's worth noting Crimson Desert, with its $203M, accounts for about 18% of all new-IP revenue in the top 100."
Otherwise, the bulk of Steam's money bags come from what analyst Joost van Dreunen calls mid-market games, which Elliott says mostly includes aging AAA titles like GTA 5, Fallout 4, and Lost Ark, as well as purely "mid-tier" games which are selling well – like Mortal Shell 2 – but can't compare to a mainstream beast like Forza Horizon 6.
"The top 100 of new 2026 games by gross revenues this year is about $2.4B, or about 15.9% of 2026's Steam overall revenues so far," says Elliott. "Of the new-game top 100, 63% were actually new IP, but 52.5% of the revenue ($1.25B) came from established IP." Long live the video game middle class.
Crimson Desert soars past 150,000 Steam reviews with Very Positive rating despite story criticism.
