--- title: "Developers need to treat Early Access like a real... description: Early Access games are surging on Steam, with 2,924 launched in 2026 so far, up 18% from 2025 and 60% from 2020. Despite that growth, only 21% of Early Access... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/developers-need-to-treat-early-access-like-a-real-launch-because-players-do-early-access-games--aodjpio7g twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: "Developers need to treat Early Access like a real launch, because players do" – Early Access games are on the rise, but so are player expectations | daily.dev og:description: Early Access games are surging on Steam, with 2,924 launched in 2026 so far, up 18% from 2025 and 60% from 2020. Despite that growth, only 21% of Early Access... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/developers-need-to-treat-early-access-like-a-real-launch-because-players-do-early-access-games--aodjpio7g og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/aodJpiO7g.png og:image:alt: "Developers need to treat Early Access like a real launch, because players do" – Early Access games are on the rise, but so are player expectations og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # "Developers need to treat Early Access like a real launch, because players do" – Early Access games are on the rise, but so are player expectations **[GamesIndustry.biz](https://daily.dev/sources/gamesindustry)** · 13 min read · 1 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary Early Access games are surging on Steam, with 2,924 launched in 2026 so far, up 18% from 2025 and 60% from 2020. Despite that growth, only 21% of Early Access graduates earned more in their first 30 days after 1.0 than during Early Access, according to GameDiscoverCo. Developers behind Valheim, Subnautica 2, Hades, Phasmophobia, Paralives, and Deadhaus Sonata discuss rising expectations, and Denis Dyack argues that large publishers use Early Access as a polished marketing beat. Valheim sold 17 million copies by its 2026 1.0 launch after more than five years in Early Access, while Paralives sold 250,000 copies within eight hours of its May 2026 launch. Several developers describe feedback as both essential and overwhelming, and warn that a weak Early Access launch can damage a game's standing with players. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How many Early Access games launched on Steam in 2026 compared to previous years? Steam saw 2,924 Early Access game launches in 2026 as of mid-October, an 18% increase from 2025 and a 60% increase compared to 2020. Early Access titles also grew as a share of all Steam releases, rising from 10.4% in 2024 to 11.3% in 2025 and 13.7% in 2026. _Developers tracking platform trends before planning a launch can follow Early Access data like this on daily.dev._ ### Do Steam Early Access graduates usually earn more revenue after their 1.0 launch? No, most do not. GameDiscoverCo found that only 21% of Steam Early Access graduates earned more revenue in the first 30 days after their 1.0 release than they did during their Early Access release, suggesting the Early Access period itself often captures the bulk of a game's commercial momentum. _Studios weighing an Early Access strategy can keep up with revenue data like this on daily.dev._ ### How long did Valheim stay in Early Access before its 1.0 release? Valheim spent over five years in Early Access, launching in February 2021 and reaching 1.0 on September 9, 2026. It sold more than five million copies in its first month and over 10 million by 2022, reaching 17 million copies by its full release, according to Iron Gate CEO Richard Svensson. _Developers planning a long Early Access roadmap can follow real case studies like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@yetzederixx** · 1 upvotes > Yeah, no, not as a blanket rule at least, but gamers are the #1 reason I never bothered to develop a game so there's that. **@akkitto** · 0 upvotes > Unfortunately, yes. Players are extremely stupid. And no, I'm not talking only about the morons buying the same FIFA game every single year and paying hundreds to thousand of bucks just for it to become obsolete after roughly a year. > > The amount of times I've seen player bases cry for an alpha game finally be released as early as possible to Early Access, just to then cry about it not working well and be in an Alpha state in Mostly Negative reviews is just mind boggling to the maximum. **@demovexa** · 0 upvotes > McKinnon's line that players treat Early Access like a real launch applies to the store page as much as the build. The trailer and screenshots are what people judge first, and in Early Access they go out of date faster than anywhere else, because the game keeps changing after release. Players notice when the store shows a menu or an area that no longer looks that way, and it tends to come up in reviews. Treating the trailer like a patch note helps: cut a new one at each major update, name it after the update, and make sure it shows the current build rather than the 1.0 vision. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Hades 2 developer discusses the importance of Early Access timing](https://daily.dev/posts/hades-2-developer-discusses-the-importance-of-early-access-timing-buv1ejyq0) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Valheim Left Early Access After 5 Years](https://daily.dev/posts/valheim-left-early-access-after-5-years-trcawzpuj) · 80 LEVEL · 3 upvotes · 2 comments - [Subnautica 2 hits four million sales](https://daily.dev/posts/subnautica-2-hits-four-million-sales-yqlxxzovg) · Game Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Games made with Unity: August 2026 in review](https://daily.dev/posts/games-made-with-unity-august-2026-in-review-dbdi9ap3x) · Unity · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#gaming](https://daily.dev/tags/gaming), [#steam](https://daily.dev/tags/steam) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/developers-need-to-treat-early-access-like-a-real-launch-because-players-do-early-access-games--aodjpio7g) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"\"Developers need to treat Early Access like a real launch, because players do\" – Early Access games are on the rise, but so are player expectations","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/developers-need-to-treat-early-access-like-a-real-launch-because-players-do-early-access-games--aodjpio7g","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/developers-need-to-treat-early-access-like-a-real-launch-because-players-do-early-access-games--aodjpio7g"},"datePublished":"2026-10-27T13:35:03.826Z","dateModified":"2026-10-27T13:40:28.862Z","description":"Early Access games are surging on Steam, with 2,924 launched in 2026 so far, up 18% from 2025 and 60% from 2020. Despite that growth, only 21% of Early Access...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2e074a07c19932426b97b3fd6f075705?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2e074a07c19932426b97b3fd6f075705?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"GamesIndustry.biz","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"GamesIndustry.biz","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/be1a78592d5340248e5204f8007b82be","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/gamesindustry"},"commentCount":3,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/developers-need-to-treat-early-access-like-a-real-launch-because-players-do-early-access-games--aodjpio7g","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}],"keywords":"game-development,gaming,steam","timeRequired":"PT13M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"GamesIndustry.biz","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/gamesindustry"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"\"Developers need to treat Early Access like a real launch, because players do\" – Early Access games are on the rise, but so are player expectations"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/developers-need-to-treat-early-access-like-a-real-launch-because-players-do-early-access-games--aodjpio7g","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Yeah, no, not as a blanket rule at least, but gamers are the #1 reason I never bothered to develop a game so there’s that.","datePublished":"2026-10-27T13:53:12.856Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aodJpiO7g#c-8hUkAlhax","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jared","url":"https://daily.dev/yetzederixx","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJE7F397eAJcrTtLk_RhHueRbehoNCm6rDryyZ_dkCRVWVh4wYd=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Unfortunately, yes. Players are extremely stupid. And no, I’m not talking only about the morons buying the same FIFA game every single year and paying hundreds to thousand of bucks just for it to become obsolete after roughly a year.\nThe amount of times I’ve seen player bases cry for an alpha game finally be released as early as possible to Early Access, just to then cry about it not working well and be in an Alpha state in Mostly Negative reviews is just mind boggling to the maximum.","datePublished":"2026-10-31T11:19:05.708Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aodJpiO7g#c-AtHppFidV","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/akkitto","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--FtwJqX4c--/f_auto/v1754900041/avatars/avatar_29TCpY2hJR72V3BlxPXzX?_a=BAMClqZW0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"McKinnon’s line that players treat Early Access like a real launch applies to the store page as much as the build. The trailer and screenshots are what people judge first, and in Early Access they go out of date faster than anywhere else, because the game keeps changing after release. Players notice when the store shows a menu or an area that no longer looks that way, and it tends to come up in reviews. Treating the trailer like a patch note helps: cut a new one at each major update, name it after the update, and make sure it shows the current build rather than the 1.0 vision.","datePublished":"2026-10-28T03:09:07.579Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aodJpiO7g#c-QufwAQt4m","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"DemoVexa","url":"https://daily.dev/demovexa","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--I0Ym8soj--/f_auto,pg_1/v1792077531/avatars/avatar_F6wD6jMSPjwEMcztjwnyE?_a=BAMAMicg0"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/developers-need-to-treat-early-access-like-a-real-launch-because-players-do-early-access-games--aodjpio7g#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How many Early Access games launched on Steam in 2026 compared to previous years?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Steam saw 2,924 Early Access game launches in 2026 as of mid-October, an 18% increase from 2025 and a 60% increase compared to 2020. Early Access titles also grew as a share of all Steam releases, rising from 10.4% in 2024 to 11.3% in 2025 and 13.7% in 2026. Developers tracking platform trends before planning a launch can follow Early Access data like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Do Steam Early Access graduates usually earn more revenue after their 1.0 launch?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No, most do not. GameDiscoverCo found that only 21% of Steam Early Access graduates earned more revenue in the first 30 days after their 1.0 release than they did during their Early Access release, suggesting the Early Access period itself often captures the bulk of a game's commercial momentum. Studios weighing an Early Access strategy can keep up with revenue data like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How long did Valheim stay in Early Access before its 1.0 release?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Valheim spent over five years in Early Access, launching in February 2021 and reaching 1.0 on September 9, 2026. It sold more than five million copies in its first month and over 10 million by 2022, reaching 17 million copies by its full release, according to Iron Gate CEO Richard Svensson. Developers planning a long Early Access roadmap can follow real case studies like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```