Mobile vs. Steam

How it started (2023): “Mobile is broken, so we’re pivoting to Steam now. 😅”

How it’s going (2025): “Here’s the DATA! 🥁🥁🥁”

From 2022-2024: A LOT of game developers gave up on mobile, and started building for Steam / PC.

Over same 2 years, Annual Steam releases grew 58%.

𝟭𝟮𝗸 (2022)
𝟭𝟰𝗸  (’23)
𝟭𝟵𝗸 (’24)

🐯 Wild.

And, since 2024, the % of devs working on PC has grown 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 20% (GDC ’25 Survey).

All of this begs an obvious question…

𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘢 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 to publish games in 2023/2024?

In other words, which platform, Steam or Mobile, had the higher success rate* for new products?

I wanted to find out!

So we analyzed  ~8000 game releases using data from AppMagic and Gamalytic.

And, I must say, I was shocked by the results! 😮

If your goal was to make over $1M, 𝗠𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 than Steam in 2024.

– Mobile releases were 39% more likely to hit $1M+ (net)
– This includes ALL monetization (F2P, Premium, AdRev)
– Data: 8k+ new (non-indie) launches on both platforms
– Data are estimates from Gamalytic and AppMagic

But I’m curious if this rings true for YOU:

❓ Are you seeing new product success on mobile that contradicts the ‘mobile is dead’ narrative?

❓ Or, are you finding Steam publishing to be the salvation you were seeking?