More than 6,000 games released on Steam in 2017 so far
Almost ten years' worth of new games are already on the marketplace - and there's still a month to go
The flood of new games released on Steam continues, with the total number already far surpassing that of last year.
According to Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, more than 6,000 titles have debuted on Valve's marketplace since the beginning of the year.
That's more than the 4,207 released in 2016, and almost as many titles as were release between Steam's launch in 2005 and 2015.
Ahmad released a graph via Twitter that shows an overview of the rise in new Steam games:
A significant chunk of these games come via Valve's new Steam Direct system, which launched in June. Within three months, more than 1,300 games were published.
Steam Direct was introduced as a replacement for Greenlight and positioned as a better filter to prevent too many new games arriving on the platform. However, the deterrent of a $100 fee seems to have been extremely ineffective.
With over a month to go until the end of the year, it's almost certain this total will continue to rise to ludicrous levels. Time will tell whether Valve actually implements something to better police the number and quality of games being released on its platform in 2018.
Given Steam gets a cut of every game sold, plus those Steam Direct fees, it's perhaps no wonder Valve boss Gabe Newell is one of the 100 richest people in the US.