Roguelikes cleared roughly $400 million in Steam gross revenue during 2025 and were approaching $500 million for 2026 by the middle of May, according to Alinea Analytics estimates. This page collects the verified numbers behind that run: genre revenue, Steam release counts, launch-day concurrent peaks, playtime distribution and DLC attach rates, each with its measurement type and period attached.
Roguelike Genre Statistics
- Roguelikes generated around $400 million in Steam gross revenue in 2025, up 80% on 2024.
- The genre was approaching $500 million in Steam gross revenue for 2026 as of May 14, 2026.
- 1,562 Steam games carrying the Roguelike tag released in 2025 through November 4, against 1,601 in 2024.
- Slay the Spire 2 recorded 282,314 concurrent Steam players in its first 24 hours on March 5, 2026.
- Four 2026 roguelike DLCs passed 100,000 copies sold on Steam by May 14, 2026.
How Much Revenue Does The Roguelike Genre Make On Steam?
Alinea Analytics estimated roguelike Steam gross revenue at around $400 million for full-year 2025, an 80% increase on 2024, which had itself been the genre’s record year.
By May 14, 2026, Alinea put the genre’s 2026 Steam gross revenue as approaching $500 million. Four months of 2026 therefore outran the whole of the previous record year.
Source: Alinea Analytics, full-year 2025 and 2026 to May 14, 2026
Where The Genre Sits Inside Steam’s Record Half-Year
Steam games generated an estimated $11.1 billion in gross revenue in the first half of 2026, Alinea’s highest half-year figure on record. That was up 14.5% on H1 2025 and 8% on the holiday-heavy H2 2025.
Games released in 2026 supplied 21% of that total. The share has fallen in each of the last three half-years, which pushes back-catalogue revenue to 79%. Run-based games sit unusually well in that pattern, since titles from 2014 and 2016 still appear in the genre’s lifetime revenue rankings and broader Steam game statistics.
Source: Alinea Analytics, H1 2024 to H1 2026 Steam gross revenue estimates
How Many Roguelike Games Release On Steam Each Year?
SteamDB release counts, reported by Destructoid on November 4, 2025, put 1,562 Roguelike-tagged games on Steam for 2025 to that date, 39 short of the 1,601 published across all of 2024. Another 52 tagged titles were scheduled before November 11.
October 2025 was the genre’s busiest month on Steam at 191 releases, 18 above the previous monthly record set in November 2024.
| Period | Steam releases tagged Roguelike |
|---|---|
| 2024 (full year) | 1,601 |
| 2025 (Jan 1 to Nov 4) | 1,562 |
| October 2025 (record month) | 191 |
| November 2024 (previous record month) | 173 |
Source: SteamDB, reported by Destructoid, November 4, 2025
Volume and visibility moved apart. Destructoid counted 108 Roguelike-tagged 2025 releases with no user reviews at all as of November 4, which it read as titles failing to gather enough players to generate reviews.
Interest did not soften at the top of the tag. More than 50 roguelikes recorded a 24-hour concurrent peak above 1,000 players in the day before that report, against 33 games under the Souls-like tag.
Source: SteamDB, reported by Destructoid, data as of November 4, 2025
Biggest Roguelike Genre Launches By Peak Concurrent Players
Rogueliker compiled SteamDB figures for the highest concurrent player counts recorded in the first 24 hours of each game’s initial Steam release, published March 6, 2026. Later 1.0 launches are excluded, so early access debuts count as the release.
Slay the Spire 2 leads at 282,314, which is 2.7 times the Hades 2 figure and more than the next three entries combined. The original Slay the Spire opened at 193 concurrent players in 2017.
| Rank | Title | Peak concurrent players, first 24 hours |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slay the Spire 2 | 282,314 |
| 2 | Hades 2 | 103,567 |
| 3 | Megabonk | 82,301 |
| 4 | The Scroll Of Taiwu | 72,121 |
| 5 | Risk of Rain 2 | 70,194 |
| 6 | The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth | 69,747 |
| 7 | Mewgenics | 65,962 |
| 8 | Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor | 56,943 |
| 9 | Loop Hero | 51,156 |
| 10 | Risk of Rain | 45,141 |
Source: SteamDB, compiled by Rogueliker, March 6, 2026
Rogueliker notes that Elden Ring Nightreign posted a higher launch peak but excludes it from the ranking, treating it as adjacent to the genre rather than inside it. Two of the top ten launched within the twelve months to March 2026: Slay the Spire 2 and Mewgenics.
Slay The Spire 2 Sales And Playtime Data
Mega Crit launched Slay the Spire 2 into Steam early access at $25 on March 5, 2026. Alinea’s estimates cover the first fourteen days, to March 19.
| Metric | What it measures | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Copies sold on Steam | Estimated units | 4.6 million |
| Steam gross revenue | Estimated player spend | Over $92 million |
| Peak daily active users | Steam DAUs, March 14 to 15 | 2.2 million |
| Wishlists at launch | Steam wishlist count | Just under 2 million |
| Chinese share of audience | Steam player base | Over one third |
| Positive review share | Steam reviews from buyers | 94% |
Source: Alinea Analytics, March 5 to March 19, 2026
That $92 million passed the Steam lifetime totals Alinea holds for Hollow Knight: Silksong ($83 million) and Hades II ($82 million), both of which also sell on other platforms. Reviews written in Simplified Chinese ran at 87% positive against the 94% overall figure.
How Long Do Players Stay In A Single Roguelike?
Playtime is where the genre separates from the rest of Steam. Of the 4.6 million Steam players at the two-week mark, more than half had already crossed 20 hours.
These bands overlap rather than divide the audience, so each figure counts everyone above that threshold. By mid-May, two months into early access, about a million people had played the game for more than 100 hours.
Source: Alinea Analytics, cumulative playtime shares as of March 19, 2026
Slay The Spire 2 Wishlist Conversion Rate
Alinea puts a typical successful Steam launch at about 7% wishlist-to-buyer conversion in week one, and 10% in a good case. Slay the Spire 2 converted 31% of wishlists added since January 2025 within a week, reaching 34% at fourteen days.
The February 2026 cohort converted hardest. Of the 161,000 Steam users who wishlisted during the month Mega Crit announced the release date, nearly half bought the game.
Source: Alinea Analytics, wishlist conversion as of March 19, 2026
Cross-title movement runs high in the genre. Alinea found 39% of Slay the Spire 2’s Steam players had never played the original on Steam, and roughly two thirds of Monster Train 2’s player base bought the sequel during early access. Spending patterns like these sit outside the add-on models tracked in wider in-game purchase spending data, since roguelike monetisation stays close to one-off premium pricing.
Roguelike Genre DLC Attach Rates In 2026
Four roguelike DLCs crossed 100,000 copies sold on Steam in 2026 by May 14. Alinea reports attach rates for these running above the Steam baseline for DLC, which it places in the low single digits across most genres.
Attach rate here means the peak share of each base game’s own Steam owners who bought that expansion, so every row carries its own denominator.
| DLC | Launch | Price | Copies | Revenue | Base game copies | Peak attach rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monster Train 2: Destiny of the Railforged | Feb 2, 2026 | $9.99 | 112,000 | $890,000 | 525,000 | Over 21% |
| Barony: Deserters & Disciples | Late Jan 2026 | $7.99 | Almost 200,000 | Almost $1.2M | Just over 1 million | Over 19% |
| Ravenswatch: Merlin | Jan 19, 2026 | $7.99 | 106,000 | $662,000 | 1.2 million | 9% |
| CloverPit: Unholy Fusion | April 2026 | $2.99 | 129,000 | Almost $300,000 | Over 1.7 million | Almost 8% |
Source: Alinea Analytics, Steam DLC estimates as of May 14, 2026
Owner base size does not predict the attach rate. Monster Train 2 has the smallest base game in the table at 525,000 Steam copies and the highest attach rate; Ravenswatch has 1.2 million owners and converts 9% of them.
Barony is the outlier on age. The 2015 dungeon crawler shipped its first DLC in seven years and pulled an attach rate above 19%, a long-tail pattern closer to the revival numbers in retro game market data than to a normal expansion window.
Price did not buy volume either. CloverPit’s $2.99 pack sold 129,000 copies against Monster Train 2’s 112,000 at $9.99, and earned roughly a third of the revenue. Alinea notes that none of the four DLCs cost more than $10, and that the Ravenswatch expansion drew divided user reviews for charging for a playable character in a premium game.
Alinea also flagged a timing overlap rather than a cause: Monster Train 2 averaged 9,000 to 11,000 daily Steam players through January, spiked above 27,000 on the February 2 DLC launch, then settled into a 5,000 to 9,000 band after Slay the Spire 2 entered early access on March 5. Genre releases compete with each other for the same hours, a dynamic visible across indie game sales figures and the broader PC gaming market.
FAQs
How much money do roguelikes make on Steam?
Roguelikes generated around $400 million in Steam gross revenue during 2025, up 80% on 2024, per Alinea Analytics. The genre was approaching $500 million for 2026 as of May 14, 2026.
What is the biggest roguelike launch on Steam?
Slay the Spire 2, at 282,314 concurrent players in its first 24 hours on March 5, 2026, per SteamDB figures compiled by Rogueliker. Hades 2 ranks second at 103,567.
How many roguelike games are released on Steam each year?
SteamDB recorded 1,601 Roguelike-tagged Steam releases in 2024 and 1,562 in 2025 through November 4. October 2025 was the busiest month on record for the tag at 191 releases.
What do Reddit users say is the best-selling roguelike of 2026?
Reddit threads are not a sales source. Alinea Analytics estimates put Slay the Spire 2 at 4.6 million Steam copies in fourteen days and 6.5 million by May 14, 2026, leading the genre.
Do roguelike DLCs sell better than other genres?
Alinea Analytics reports peak attach rates of 8% to 21% for four 2026 roguelike DLCs on Steam, against a Steam DLC baseline it places in the low single digits across most genres.
Sources
https://alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/slay-the-spire-2-one-of-the-best
https://alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/steam-dlc-data-high-attach-rates
https://alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/steam-is-having-another-record-year
https://rogueliker.com/the-biggest-roguelike-and-roguelite-launches-on-steam/
https://icon-era.com/statistics/balatro/
https://icon-era.com/statistics/steam-concurrent-player-records/