Since the early 2010s, Steam has been a hub for independent- dubbed ‘indie’- developers and publishers to showcase their work to the public. Following the online gaming platform’s success since first opening its doors to third party publishers in 2005, over 100,000 Steam titles have been indies. Last week, an all time record of over 700 games were released on the platform, the majority of which categorized as indie.
While the PC centered gaming platform is available to, and used by larger AA and AAA publishers, it is widely regarded as the indie platform by the general public. Though third party publishing on Steam was allowed starting in 2005, it required a partnership with the platform’s parent company: Valve. This changed in 2012 when Steam launched their Greenlight program, holding community votes for which indie titles would be sold on the website. A 2017 update changed the Steam Greenlight program to Steam Direct, resulting in a more accessible method of uploading games. The Steam Direct system is still in place today, and is most likely a direct cause for the massive jump in the amount of new releases.
Of the 700+ games published, only ten titles managed to get over 1,000 reviews. Taking a massive step down, 190 releases received over ten reviews. On the other hand, seventy four percent of these games went widely unnoticed, receiving anywhere from zero to nine reviews. Many indie and solo developers are upset with this, blaming the rise of generative AI for this rapid fire of games. “Most of them are vibe coded slop,” one Redditor comments. “I bet most are shovel ware, asset flips and AI slop,” one remarks, further explaining that they believe “AI slop will make this problem increase exponentially,” lamenting “the time that merely being on Steam will get you notice.” As of today, September 4, 2026, neither Steam or Valve have released an official statement regarding these comments and concerns.