Steam is not only the largest game store on the planet, but also a social network, a kind of mirror of the gaming market and a huge database that helps to study certain market trends. Starting with the market shares of specific video cards, processors, and languages, and ending with the download speeds of different providers in different countries and the popularity of game engines.
Steam accumulates tons of information, and sites like SteamDB, which we often mention in our materials, help analyze this data. For example, SteamDB collects interesting information about game engines used by projects released on Steam. And if every gamer can name the most popular engines, most likely, most game developers will not know what is beyond the first two places. We decided to write a little more about the Top 10 Steam game engines and the percentage of Steam games based on them.
As of the end of January 2025, Steam has data on 103,069 games, with 18,958 games released in 2024 alone, or 18.4% of all games. In addition, another 1,232 games have already been released in the first, usually the quietest month of the year. Let's see what share of them are games on the most popular engines. The number of games is given as of January 30, 2025.
1. Unity
First release June 8, 2005
Current version Unity 6 (October 17, 2024)
Number of games on Steam 50 447 (48.9% of all games)
Strangely enough, Unity, which was originally intended to "democratize" game development, was positioned as a game engine for Mac OS X and was first shown in 2005 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Well, macOS never became a serious gaming platform, but since then, Unity has mastered all existing platforms, including VR, and has become a well-established choice for small indie teams.
Unity Technologies' democratic pricing policy, multi-platform support, and a large amount of documentation, tutorials, modules, libraries, and assemblies accumulated over 20 years make Unity a versatile, easy-to-learn, and convenient engine that is the engine of choice for small and medium-sized projects. But the days when Unity was considered an engine only for small indie games are long gone, and now even AA open-world games are being developed on it.
Among the most popular Steam projects on Unity are the survival game Valheim (peak online 502 thousand players), Among Us (447 thousand), and the battle royale NARAKA: BLADEPOINT (386 thousand), action/RPG Last Epoch (265 thousand), survival game Rust (262 thousand), multiplayer game Fall Guys (172 thousand), and thousands of others.
Although in the fall of 2023, Unity Technologies tried to bury itself by offering extortionate fees for installing games, everything settled down later and only a few developers left Unity. As of now, almost half of all Steam games use Unity, and it looks like this engine will remain the most popular choice for indies in the near future.
2. Unreal Engine
First release May 1998
Current version Unreal Engine 5.5 (November 12, 2024)
Number of games on Steam 14 816 (14.4% of all games)
The development of Unreal Engine 1, then simply Unreal Engine, started in 1995 and was originally intended to power only one game - the legendary first-person shooter Unreal, which was supposed to challenge the hegemony of id Software shooters. The Unreal Engine was personally developed by Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games and a future billionaire, who personally wrote 90% of the engine code.
Initially, Sweeney did not plan to license the Unreal Engine, but later changed his mind, and as of the end of 1999, the engine was used in 19 external projects, including such well-known ones as Deus Ex (2000), The Wheel of Time (1999), Duke Nukem Forever (2011), and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). The engine was licensed for an incredible $350 thousand by today's standards, and still the queue of people was not decreasing. Therefore, Unreal Engine 2 (2001) was developed with licensing in mind and became even more successful.
Although the Unreal Engine was originally considered to be primarily a shooter and action/adventure engine, it is now used for AAA and AA games of all genres. Among the most popular projects on UE is the battle royale PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS (peak online 3.2 million players), action/RPG Black Myth: Wukong (online 2.4 million), Palworld (2.1 million), Hogwarts Legacy (879 thousand), Marvel Rivals (644 thousand). Unreal Engine is used by Manor Lords urban planning strategy, Satisfactory production strategy, Sid Meier's Civilization VI global strategy, XCOM 2 tactics, and other "non-shooters".
And of course, we have to name S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Although some Ukrainian players thought that the use of Unreal Engine would deprive S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 of its atmosphere and make it look like other games on this engine, this fortunately did not happen.
The current version of Unreal Engine 5 supports Windows, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X|S, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, macOS, iOS, Android, ARKit, ARCore, OpenXR, SteamVR, Oculus, Linux, and SteamDeck. The main features of the new version are the Nanite virtual geometry system, which allows developers to use photogrammetric objects and controls the levels of detail; and the Lumen full global lighting system with ray tracing.
Unreal Engine is the choice for large and ambitious AAA and AA projects, although small indie teams sometimes choose UE if they have specialists in this engine. A large library of assets, training tools, support from Epic Games, including grants, and a fairly affordable price help promote the engine. As of now, 14.4% of all Steam games use the Unreal Engine.
3. GameMaker
First release November 15, 1999
Current version v2024.11.0 (December 17, 2024)
Number of games on Steam 5 260 (5.1% of all games)
GameMaker is a cross-platform engine and toolkit used to create 2D games. The engine's feature is visual drag-and-drop programming, and it is believed that GameMaker is easy to learn even for a non-programmer.
GameMaker was created in 1999 by Mark Overmars, a Dutch scientist who worked at the University of Utrecht in the field of computer graphics, robotics, geographic information systems, etc. until his retirement. Gaming is Overmars' hobby.
Among the popular games that use GameMaker are Loop Hero (peak online 51 thousand), Risk of Rain and Risk of Rain Returns (45 thousand), Awesomenauts (12 thousand), Undertale (10 thousand), Hotline Miami (7 thousand). GameMaker itself can be found on Steam - the basic version is free, but to export the result to gaming platforms, you need to purchase a professional version, which actually costs a little.
Although GameMaker has many limitations, its ease of use, accessibility, and a lot of tutorials on how to work with the engine make it a good choice for beginners. GameMaker is responsible for 5.1% of all Steam games.
4. RPG Maker
First release December 17, 1992
Current version RPG Maker MZ (August 27, 2020)
Number of games on Steam 3 411 (3.3% of all games)
Another 2D engine and another Maker. As you can see from the name, this time it's for creating role-playing games. And not just any role-playing games, but classic Japanese 2D role-playing games from the golden age of this genre, the 1990s. RPG Maker is also positioned as an easy-to-learn engine.
RPG Maker was developed in the early 1990s by the Japanese company ASCII, and now the engine is operated by Gotcha Gotcha Games. Initially, it was an exclusively Japanese product, and the first translations were pirated.
Despite the fact that RPG Maker is primarily used to create a specific type of role-playing game, this engine is also used to create visual novels, erotic games, and more. Plus, there are a lot of machinima (videos created on the basis of game engines) using RPG Maker.
Among the most popular Steam games on RPG Maker: Sanfu (with a peak of 21 thousand online players, exclusively in Chinese), PlayAgain (13 thousand, exclusively in Chinese), 再刷一把2：金色传说 (13 thousand, you know), Winter Memories (12 thousand), and others.
In addition, almost all versions of RPG Maker itself are available on Steam, including the latest RPG Maker MZ, plus more than 750 add-ons to the engine with characters, effects, maps, and more. RPG Maker is responsible for 3.3% of all Steam games.
5. Pygame + Ren'Py
First release October 28, 2000
Current version 2.5.2 (September 18, 2023)
Number of games on Steam 2 870 (2.7% of all games)
Pygame is a cross-platform set of modules based on the Python programming language, which is popular among game developers. It includes graphics and audio libraries for creating video games. Pygame was developed by programmer Pete Shinners and is now maintained by the community.
The popular engine for creating visual novels Ren'Py is based on Pygame, so they can be counted together. Especially since the lion's share of games that SteamDB counts as Pygame games are Ren'Py games.
Ren'Py was developed by Tom Rotamel in 2004, and the current version 8.2.3 was released in June 2024.
Ren'Py allows you to create extensive visual stories and is very easy to learn. For example, the organizers of the Ukrainian Visual Novel Jam advise novice developers to use Ren'Py. In addition to visual novels, Ren'Py is actively used for erotic games.
Pygame and Ren'Py are free. Pygame is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, and Ren'Py is distributed under the MIT License.
The most famous Pygame/Ren'Py games: Doki Doki Literature Club! (peak online 7 thousand), Being a DIK (5.8 thousand), Tiny Bunny (5.6 thousand), Slay the Princess and many others. Pygame/Ren'Py games have a 2.7% share of all Steam games.
6. Godot
First release January 14, 2014
Current version 4.3 (August 15, 2024)
Number of games on Steam 1 950 (1.9% of all games)
Another free engine distributed under the MIT License, but this time with 3D, support for mobile platforms, and VR/AR. It seems that future versions of Godot should also work on Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony consoles.
Godot, then called Larvotor, was developed in 2001 by Argentine programmers Juan Linitsky and Ariel Manzur, and until 2014 it was a commercial game engine that had to be purchased. In 2014, Linitsky left Argentina for Spain and released Godot on GitHub under the MIT License. The engine is now maintained by the nonprofit The Godot Foundation.
Juan Linitsky is still actively involved in Godot, and recently one of the Ukrainian developers accused him and Godot of being pro-Russian. However, other Ukrainian developers who work with Godot disagreed with this claim. By the way, Linitsky has Jewish roots and his relatives moved to Argentina from Mykolaiv during the White Army's invasion of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
It is believed that Godot is an easy-to-learn but powerful 3D engine, but most of the famous Godot games are 2D: Brotato (peak online 39 thousand), Backpack Battles (36 thousand), Halls of Torment (26 thousand), 20 Small Mazes, Dome Keeper, and others. 1.9% of all Steam games are made on Godot.
First release March 24, 2004
Current version FNA 25.01 (January 2, 2025)
Number of games on Steam 1 092 (1.1% of all games)
Microsoft XNA is a set of free tools, development environments and runtime environments from Microsoft Gaming based on the .NET Framework. XNA was presented in March 2004 at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose and was positioned as a tool for creating small indie games and was supposed to be the basis for the Xbox Live Indie Games service. But it did not work out.
Microsoft stopped developing XNA in January 2013. XNA is not compatible with the Windows Runtime and does not support the Metro-style interface introduced in Windows 8. However, XNA games continue to run and be developed thanks to FNA, a multi-platform open-source replacement for Microsoft's XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh libraries. FNA is being developed by programmer Ethan Lee. Updates are released regularly, and the 2025 version is already available. Another open-source replacement for XNA is MonoGame. SteamDB counts FNA games and MonoGame games together with XNA.
XNA/FNA/MonoGame remains a tool for creating small indie games, but what kind of games. XNA/FNA/MonoGame is used to create all Supergiant Games games, including Hades II (peak online 104 thousand) and Hades (54 thousand); some of the most successful games in history - Terraria (online 490 thousand, sold 58.7 million copies) and Stardew Valley (online 236 thousand, sold 41 million copies); SpeedRunners, Celeste, Rogue Legacy, Streets of Rage 4 and other indie masterpieces. In total, XNA/FNA/MonoGame libraries are used by 1.1% of all Steam games.
8. Cocos
First release February 29, 2008
Current version 0.6.10 (Cocos2d – July 17, 2023)
Number of games on Steam 757 (0.7% of all games)
Cocos is a family of open-source developer tools and a software framework for developing primarily 2D games for Windows, macOS, Linux, and a handful of mobile platforms including Tizen, HarmonyOS, and tvOS. The original Cocos2d was developed in 2008 by programmers Ricardo Quesada and Lucio Torre.
There are now several Cocos branches, such as Cocos2d-x, Cocos2d-ObjC, Cocos2d-html5, Cocos2d-xna, and Cocos Creator, as well as additional tools and editors from external developers.
The most famous games on Cocos: Geometry Dash (peak online 88 thousand), Hero's Land (37 thousand), METAL SLUG 3, Ticket to Ride, FarmVille, the original Plague Inc. and others. Different versions of Cocos are used by 0.7% of all Steam games.
9. Adobe AIR
First release February 25, 2008
Current version 51.1.3.4 (January 13, 2025)
Number of games on Steam 452 (0.4% of all games)
Adobe Integrated Runtime, or Adobe AIR, is a cross-platform runtime environment primarily for using web applications that use Flash, ActionScript, HTML, and JavaScript like regular desktop or mobile programs. The first versions were developed by Adobe Inc. itself, and now Adobe AIR is supported by Harman International, which has been a division of Samsung Electronics since 2017. At one time, Adobe AIR was widely used to port online and mobile flash games to the desktop.
The most popular games on Adobe AIR: Brawlhalla (peak online 35 thousand), Heroes & Generals (21 thousand), which is developed on the Retox web engine, but Adobe AIR is responsible for its transformation into a desktop program, Clicker Heroes 2 (9 thousand), Card Hunter, the legendary The Banner Saga series. Adobe AIR is used in 0.4% of all Steam games.
10. KiriKiri
First release 1998
Current version Kirikiri Z (January 13, 2025)
Number of games on Steam 341 (0.3% of all games)
Another exclusively Japanese free visual novel engine distributed under the GNU General Public License. Support for the original KiriKiri was discontinued in 2010, and its offshoot Kirikiri Z has been developing since 2013.
The most popular visual novels on Kirikiri: Senren＊Banka (peak online 3 thousand), Tricolour Lovestory (2.7 thousand), NEKOPARA series, GINKA, and others. The Kirikiri engine is used by 0.3% of all Steam games.
Of course, you won't see a bunch of well-known proprietary game engines in this list, because they are usually not very active or not licensed at all and the number of games on them is limited. But here is a list of the most famous engines of this kind. Please note that SteamDB counts game mods as separate games on the same engine, so the number for Source is mostly mods.
Other well-known game engines
GameGuru (TheGameCreators) – 212 games
AdventureGameStudio (open-source) – 160 games
Source (Valve) – 151 game
CryEngine (Crytek) – 128 games
OGRE (open-source) – 125 games
idTech (id Software) – 106 games
Anvil (Ubisoft) – 36 games
IW Engine (Infinity Ward) – 33 games
RE Engine (Capcom) – 33 games
Frostbite (EA/DICE) – 31 game
ChromeEngine (Techland) – 28 games
Prism3D (SCS Software) – 23 games
Serious Engine (Croteam) – 18 games
LithTech (MonoLith Productions) – 17 games
ApexEngine (Avalanche Studios) – 17 games
Clausewitz (Paradox Development Studio) – 17 games
Build (3D Realms) – 15 games
Source2 (Valve) – 13 games
Lumberyard (Amazon) – 13 games
Snowdrop (Massive Entertainment) – 10 games