$70 Games Are Riskier Than Ever As Cheaper Games Dominate...

What’s Happening

Breaking it down: Cheap games are some of the highest-rated and best-selling of the year $70 Games Are Riskier Than Ever As Cheaper Games Dominate On Steam Cheap games are some of the highest-rated and best-selling of the year Steam Lewis Parker Published | Comments ( 10 ) | 𝕏 Copied!

Sandfall Interactive The 2026 PC and Console Gaming Report from leading video game analytics firm Newzoo is stuffed full of dozens of interesting tidbits, covering everything from the ongoing dip in subscription-based MMORPG revenue to the top 20 highest-playtime games on Xbox and PlayStation. But, the stat that’s catching everyone’s attention is the ongoing rise of “sub-$30” purchases on PC, which has risen by a whopping 156 percent from 2022 to 2025 . (and honestly, same)

Newzoo’s annual PC & Gaming Report for 2026 dropped on March 12, and the biggest revelation, as spotted by GamesIndustry.

The Details

Biz , is that “Steam-led PC growth” will lead to PC games sales overtaking consoles’ total game sales revenue by 2028. To clarify, that’s not some kind of medium statistic– Newzoo projects that PC game sales will overtake the combined game sales of the Nintendo Switch 2, the PlayStation 5, and the Xbox Series S/X by 2028.

Of course, that’s only including game purchases. As the report makes a point of noting, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are still making a bunch of money from subscription-based services like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Games Pass, which, of course, Steam doesn’t offer.

Why This Matters

But, it’s still a mindboggling statistic even with this stipulation in mind, so what exactly is the cause of the PC market’s growth in video game sales? By “cheaper,” Newzoo isn’t referring to games that are on sale; the report specifically notes that games that retail at a full price below “sub-$30” are to blame for this upward trend. In fact, in 2025 alone, Schedule I , PEAK , R.

This is the kind of news that gets gamers talking across social media.

Key Takeaways

• 2 percent of PCs top sub-$30 games.
• New sub-$30 releases also accounted for roughly 9 percent of PCs total revenue in 2025.

The Bottom Line

2 percent of PCs top sub-$30 games. New sub-$30 releases also accounted for roughly 9 percent of PCs total revenue in 2025.

What’s your take on this whole situation?