Sep 03, 2021 20:00:00

What is the most popular game engine for games sold on Steam? Statistical data to understand is released

Game Developer , a game development-related media, has released statistical data that summarizes what kind of game engine is used for games distributed on Steam, the world's largest PC game platform.

Game engines on Steam: The definitive breakdown
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-engines-on-steam-the-definitive-breakdown

Game Developer operates a site called Game Data Crunch, which publishes statistical data published by major game stores such as Steam and Epic Games Store. We have integrated the information collected on this site with the information on Steam Database , the official Steam database, to summarize the information about the game engine used by the games distributed on Steam.

Included in this statistic are 'games released after 2010', 'pre-release games', 'free games' and 'price less than $ 4.99' unless otherwise stated. 'Games released in' and 'Games with less than 50 reviews' are excluded. This is to reduce noise from statistical results by excluding 'game projects born from small hobbies' that are far from commercial efforts. In addition, it seems that the total number of target games has exceeded 10,000 even if narrowed down under the above conditions.

Unity is the most popular game engine for mobile game developers, with over 50% of the mobile game market using Unity. That's why Game Developer says, 'I was curious about how popular Unity is in PC games.' However, research has shown that Unity may have an even greater share of the PC gaming market than the mobile gaming market.

The race chart below shows the game engine used by games released after 2010 in a ranking format. Click the thumbnail below to display the GIF image, and you can check the transition of the number of titles that adopted each game engine from 2010 to 2021. 'Unknown' is a title for which the game engine could not be identified, and 'Other' is a summary of cases where the game engine was successfully identified but the engine was not ranked in the top 10. As of 2010, the number of games adopting Unity per year is very small at 5, but in 2016 it jumped to the top of the ranking, and in 2020 more than 700 games will adopt Unity per year. It has become like.

The top 8 game engines used in most games as of 2021 are:

◆ 1st place: Unity
Unity is a slightly later game engine, released in 2005 as a Mac-only engine. Popular with cross-platform support and relatively low licensing fees (70% of Unity's revenue comes from non-licensing fees), it is the most popular for small and medium-sized game developers and game development projects. The famous titles that use Unity are as follows.

・

Among Us
・Cities: Skylines
・Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
・Phasmophobia

◆ 2nd place: Unreal Engine
Epic's Games Unreal Engine to the development of was first used, was released in 1998 ' Unreal in', the name of the game engine also has become this title is derived from. Unreal Engine's license fees have been gradually reduced over the past few decades, 'now it's a game engine that most people can use,' Game Developer said. Still, Unreal Engine tends to be adopted in high-end game development projects. The following are examples of adopted titles of Unreal Engine.

・ARK: Survival Evolved
・Borderlands 3
・MORDHAU
・PUBG (PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS)
・Sea of Thieves
・XCOM 2

◆ 3rd place: GameMaker Studio
GameMaker Studio is a 2D-specific game engine developed by YoYo Games. Coding in the GameMaker language (GML) is also possible, and in addition to cheap licenses, extensive cross-platform support is also attractive. The following are examples of titles that use GameMaker Studio.

・Hotline Miami
・Katana Zero
・Risk of Rain
・Undertale

◆ 4th place: Ren'Py
Ren'Py is a game engine distributed under the MIT open source license and has a release date of 2004. The game engine used in more than 450 visual novel games, the following two are typical examples.

・Ladykiller in a Bind
・Long Live the Queen

◆ 5th place: RPG Maker (including each version)
RPG Maker was released in 1992, the oldest line-quinted game engine. Game production software from Japan that focuses on creating RPGs. The following are examples of adoption.

・To The Moon

◆ 6th place: Adobe AIR
Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is a tool developed in 2008 that allows Flash or ActionScript developers to create 'content that can be executed on Windows, Mac, and mobile devices without a browser.' Since many of the popular games on Steam are derived from browser games made with Flash, the number of games that use AIR is inevitably increasing. Not only PC games, but also eBay apps for PCs and mobile games such as 'Angry Birds' have adopted AIR.

・The Banner Saga
・The Henry Stickmin Collection
・Samorost 3

◆ 7th place: XNA
XNA is Microsoft's game development tool released in 2006 and discontinued in 2014. Freeware released by Microsoft to encourage the development of games for Windows and Xbox 360. The titles adopted by XNA are as follows.

・Borderlands 2
・Celeste
・Rogue Legacy
・Stardew Valley

◆ 8th place: OGRE
The game engine used by the popular title Roblox from 2005 to 2014 is OGRE . Although not many titles have been adopted, it is characterized by being used in some famous titles including Roblox.

・Rebel Galaxy
・Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
・Kenshi
・Torchlight
・Torchlight II

The graph below summarizes the selling price range of adopted titles by game engine. Unreal Engine has an overwhelmingly high selling price range, and while only 6% of Unity adopted titles are sold at a price of $ 29.99 (about 3300 yen) or more, Unreal Engine is adopted. Indeed, 25% of the titles sell for over $ 29.99. As a result, Game Developer wrote, 'This has confirmed the perception that Unreal Engine is favored by large game development projects.'

The graph below shows the percentage of titles whose reviews are posted on the review site

Metacritic. With RPG Maker at 7% and Ren'Py at 3%, it's 'very difficult' for titles with two game engines to get Metacritic reviews, Game Developer said. Regarding the reason why the review acquisition rate of Unity adopted titles is low, Game Developer wrote that 'it is more likely that it is a problem of game volume rather than a problem of genre or engine', and it is for games of various sizes. It points out that it is a harmful effect that Unity is adopted.

Below is a graph of the average scores of Metacritic reviews by game engine.

Classified as 'Unknown' refers to titles for which the game engine could not be identified, that is, titles that adopted their own custom engine. The adoption rate of custom engines is decreasing year by year, and as of 2021, less than 20% of games released on Steam are adopting custom engines. Nevertheless, the adoption rate of custom engines in major titles, which are expected to generate high sales, is extremely high.