Gaming Insights · Karl Kontus · January 2024
State of Free to Play on Steam in 2024 – Industry Report
Free to play (FtP) has been a standard in the mobile games industry for over a decade now. In the PC and console world it became a bigger topic around 2017-18 when Fortnite took the world by storm. Suddenly, every large publisher needed to have their own FtP title.
But free to play really started at a meaningful level much earlier, on PC. There are the classics outside of Steam – Runescape (2001), Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (2003), Silkroad Online (2007) as well as examples on Steam – Team Fortress 2 (2007), DOTA 2 (2013) and so on.
Which brings us to the state of free to play games on Steam in 2024. This report explores the popularity of FtP within Steam and looks at the top games over time.
You’re not going to believe trend number 4! (just baiting you to read the report)
Short Summary of the Market Report
1. Free to play games capture over half of the player engagement on Steam.
2. Counter-Strike and DOTA 2 have been leading the engagement charts for over 10 years.
3. FtP games are very concentrated – top 25 FtP titles capture 88% of all FtP player engagement.
4. Only a few new FtP hits launched in the last 4 years – it is getting crowded as older titles remain popular.
5. Premium games at $20-$40 price point with live service elements might be an attractive middle-ground.
6. United States, China and Russia are critical for the FtP titles as they make up nearly 40% of all FtP players on Steam.
Written by: Karl Kontus, SVP & GM, Video Game Insights
Date: January 2024