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The number of games disclosing Generative AI usage on Steam has shot up by almost 800% over the last year, with just under 8,000 games being sold using it.
Gaming storefronts have been a hot topic over the last few years as seemingly every platform holder has opened the floodgates to whoever and whatever. One glance at the Nintendo eShop unloads a wave of slop with low-effort, AI-generated thumbnails. It even affects popular games, as PC-exclusive viral hit Schedule 1 has faced ripoff games on both PlayStation and the Switch eShop, while Unpacking director Wren Brier notes multiple AI ripoffs of their game on the eShop being sold for cheap, presumably to lure in unsuspecting buyers.
A report from Ichiro Lambe (founder of indie studio Dejobaan Games) found that things are only getting worse. "A year ago, I poked around Steam to see how many game developers were disclosing usage of Generative AI. It was around 1,000, which seemed like a lot to me at the time." However, one year on, "Nearly 8,000 games on Steam Use GenAI. Or, more precisely: 7,818 titles on Steam disclose GenAI usage. That’s 7% of the total Steam library," with one in five games released in 2025 using it.
Lambe notes that as players become increasingly savvy and refuse to play games using GenAI (Jurassic World Evolution 3 recently discontinued its AI use due to players rejecting what should be done by a person), developers are using more defensive language. Additionally, this number only represents developers who voluntarily disclose the use of GenAI, so there's a chance the issue is much worse than reported.
Granted, when you hear about games using GenAI, I imagine it conjures up images of games creating voiceovers or art with it (which, granted, is a lot of it). However, some games are using it for different purposes, like social game Comedy Night, which notes on its Steam page, "We use Ai to detect offensive material being uploaded to use as stage backgrounds and facemasks. AI is also used to flag offensive room names and descriptions." That is a far better use for the tech than stealing art or voice acting performances to create something ugly that sounds like crap.
