Game prices were a hot topic this year, and you've probably heard the same thing on repeat (and not just about gaming). Everything is getting more expensive.
From Nintendo's $80 Switch 2 games, to Xbox trying (and later walking back) Outer Worlds 2 pricing, it's easy to feel like the industry is moving towards a future where only the most financially comfortable get to play new releases at launch.
This year's top-selling Steam releases weren't back-to-back AAA blockbusters
My own personal favorite games this year, and those of my friend group, have all been on the budget-friendly side. I wrote earlier this year that I'd be voting with my wallet on rising game prices, and I did just that.
When Game Pass prices skyrocketed, I also shared that, because the titles I've enjoyed are mostly of lower value, the subscription over the year isn't worth it for me anymore.
That all said, that's my personal anecdotal experience with a year of titles like Expedition 33, Ball x Pit, Blue Prince, and Vampire Survivors (and special shout out to Megabonk) taking up my rotation. Not a $80 game in sight, I even let Diablo 4 slide this year!
Own experience aside, I was bolstered by a recent read over the top-selling Steam games. There are plenty of heavy bank balance hitters here, but you'll notice a bunch of cheaper titles taking up space in the charts for 2025.
Confusingly, Steam has listed the games alphabetically rather than by revenue, but shows the top earners in a Platinum tier, next in Gold, and next Silver... you get the idea. Here are some of the top earners in the Platinum category, along with their release prices.
- Arc Raiders - $39.99
- Borderlands 4 - $69.99
- Elden Ring Nightreign - $39.99
- Hollow Knight SilkSong - $19.99
- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered - $49.99
- EA FC26 - $69.99
- Schedule I - $19.99
- Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 - $29.99
- Civilization VII - $69.99
- Battlefield 6 - $69.99
- Monster Hunter Wilds - $69.99
- Dune Awakening - $49.99
There's a bunch of sub-$50 goodness in that line-up, and the Gold Tier includes Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ($49.99), Split Fiction ($49.99), and Dispatch ($29.99).
Silver Tier gets even more interesting with top revenue winners R.E.P.O ($9.99), Grounded 2 ($29.99), Escape from Duckov ($17.99), Rematch ($29.99), and PEAK ($7.99) to name a few.
Many of my own favorites got a mention in the Bronze tier like Megabonk ($9.99), Cloverpit ($9.99) and Ball X Pit ($14.99).
Many of the top sellers here actually hit somewhere between $10 and $20, with cheaper games hitting multi-million sales and reaching new heights in 2025. Schedule I, for example, reported over 8 million copies sold in May of this year, and PEAK hit 15 million players, as announced just last week.
So while publishers are trying to justify $80 price tags, theres plenty out there to play at half the cost and many are doing like me and voting with their wallets.
2025 was also the year of "Friendslop"
I'm deeply sorry to have to introduce this term to my lexicon (and yours, if you haven't heard it yet), but I only recently noticed the rise of "friendslop" in gaming news. It's basically a catch-all term for those cheap, janky, and often co-operative games like Lethal Company, R.E.P.O., etc., of which the main appeal is silly, dorky gameplay with your friends rather than groundbreaking graphics or AAA polish.
Most of the games my teenage son and his friends enjoyed this year on PC fall into this category, and many of them ranked among the top revenue on Steam, I'm sure, much to the frustration of many a AAA studio with its multi-million-dollar budget.
Big action epic RPGs still thrived, however, such as Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, so the art of creating fantastic-looking games isn't totally lost. Mid-priced titles like Clair Obscur, Split Fiction, Dispatch, and Silksong all made waves, too, but neither are they $70-$80 blockbusters.
They were all creative and priced well enough for gamers to feel comfortable taking a chance on them (and I've no doubt that a couple of these titles being on Xbox Game Pass helped their virality).
I think the economy will move gamers further away from AAA going forward
Looking toward 2026, my spending habits aren't changing, and I’m going to carry on being stingy. I just can’t justify blindly dropping $80 on a single game, not when that money could fill my car for the month. There are too many perfectly good games for much, MUCH cheaper. Gaming has to stay a hobby, not a financial burden. If a game isn't essential for my survival, it’s not getting a pass on a massive price hike. That’s just my reality now.
Wages have crawled to a standstill. The average gamer isn't buying five or six full-price games a year, let alone paying $80 for them. Valve's own Steam Replay data shows that the average Steam user played only four new games in 2024 and 2025.
Within the economic downturn is a silver lining, though. Smaller studios are thriving, and unique ideas are breaking through into the gaming charts. The industry is changing, whether the AAA giants like it or not. We aren't just playing cheaper games because we have to; we’re playing them because, right now, that’s where the real innovation (and the real fun) is happening.
Is the $80 game a dead end? How much are you willing to pay? Let me know in the comments and vote in the poll!
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