Steam Replay 2025: How Much Do We Actually Play New Games?
Steam’s 2025 Replay is live, and alongside the fun personal stats and graphs, there is one number that quietly reveals a lot about how PC gamers really play. Valve shared that in 2025, only 14 percent of total playtime on Steam was spent in games that actually released in 2025.
In other words, most of us are not spending the bulk of our time on the latest releases. We are living in older libraries, comfort games, and backlogs that never seem to end.
Valve does not fully explain how it calculates this percentage, but it is reasonable to assume that inactive or abandoned accounts are filtered out. Steam has been around for more than two decades. Without some cleanup, that 14 percent would likely be even lower.
What makes this number interesting is that it is not a one off. It is part of a pattern that has been forming over several years.
The 4 Year Pattern: New Games Take About 15 Percent
Looking back at Steam’s previous Replay stats, you can see the same trend repeating:
- 2022: 17 percent of all playtime was on games released that same year
- 2023: 9 percent
- 2024: 15 percent
- 2025: 14 percent
Outside of 2023, which dips noticeably, the percentages hover close to 15 percent. That suggests a kind of equilibrium in PC gaming habits. No matter how many big launches hit in a year, most of our time still goes into older titles.
If you turn that 14 percent into something more relatable, it translates to around seven fiftieths of your total gaming time. So if you played 300 hours of games in 2025, the average Steam user would have only spent about 42 of those hours in brand new releases.
Another way to look at it is by number of games. The median number of games actually played in 2025 is just four. Spread across those four, that 14 percent roughly equals a little over half of one brand new title per person. Of course the math is a bit tongue in cheek, but it highlights how rare it is for an average player to truly sink into multiple fresh releases each year.
There are always exceptions. Some players absolutely live for day one launches. The author notes their own Steam Replay shows 46 percent of their time was in new 2025 releases, putting them far outside the norm. But on a platform wide scale, they are the minority.
Why We Are Not Rushing To Every New Release
This steady 15 percent band is especially striking when you remember how turbulent the games industry has been lately. Over the last few years we have seen:
- A wave of live service games that launch hard, then fizzle out, or shut down early
- Economic pressure and talk of tariffs that could impact tech and game prices
- Delayed or cancelled projects
- Large scale layoffs across studios and publishers
There is a sense that the industry is under stress while players are being more careful with their money and time. In that kind of climate, it makes sense that people lean on older standbys instead of diving into every fresh release.
Older games get constant updates, new content, and technical improvements. Many free to play and live service titles are designed to keep you engaged for years. For someone with a limited budget or a mid range PC, going back to a reliable favorite often feels safer than dropping full price on a brand new game that might be buggy, badly optimized, or abandoned within a year.
It also shows how strong the PC back catalog really is. Between regular Steam sales, Epic freebies, and a never ending stream of quality indie projects, there is always something older and cheaper that still feels new to you personally, even if it came out two or three years ago.
That is before you even consider huge lists of free PC games and free Steam games that can soak up hundreds of hours without costing a cent. When great experiences are that accessible, the newest release is no longer the only exciting option on the table.
What This Means For Your Library And The Year Ahead
So what does this 14 percent figure really tell us as PC gamers?
- You are not alone if you spend most of your time on older games. The majority of Steam playtime is happening in titles that are at least a year old.
- Backlogs are normal. With sales and giveaways constantly stacking new titles onto our accounts, it is natural that we spread our time thin and do not jump on every launch.
- New releases still matter, just not as much as hype suggests. On average, they get a slice of your year, not the whole pie.
Looking ahead to the next round of 2025 and 2026 releases, the numbers suggest something funny. Even if the schedule is stacked with big PC games, statistically we will only spend around seven fiftieths of our time in them.
That does not mean you should ignore upcoming launches. Tools like Steam wishlists, release calendars, and seasonal sale pages are great for planning your year and catching the specific new titles that really matter to you. But it is a reminder that the heart of PC gaming is not just what is brand new. It is the mix of fresh releases, slightly older hits you finally get around to, and long term favorites that you keep coming back to for comfort or competition.
When you open your own Steam Replay 2025, you might see a very different percentage than the average. Maybe half of your time went into new releases. Maybe almost none of it did. Either way, those numbers are a snapshot of how you really use your PC and your hardware.
And if your new release percentage is low, do not be bothered. Odds are you are just gaming like most of Steam already does: balancing shiny new titles with a deep and growing library of PC games that still have plenty of life left in them.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/steams-2025-replay-reveals-we-all-once-again-spent-around-14-percent-of-our-time-on-games-released-in-the-same-year-which-apparently-shakes-out-to-a-median-of-0-56-new-games/
