What does a PC game cost in 2026?
Median prices, discounts and historical lows across the playze.io catalogue — by release year, genre and publisher. Recomputed from live prices every six hours. Last computed 10 Sep 2026.
Across 32,423 PC games that at least 50 people have reviewed on Steam, the median best price today is $4.49 — the lowest price we found for each game across Steam, GOG, Epic and the major keyshops. Counting every priced game in the catalogue, shovelware included, it is $4.95 across 102,305 games; the rest of this page uses the reviewed population, because a 99-cent asset flip nobody bought is not a data point about what games cost.
55% of those games are discounted somewhere right now, by a median of 70%, and 9% can be bought today at the lowest price we have ever tracked for them.
How a game's price falls with age
Median best price today, by the year the game was released. Older games are cheaper, but the curve is not smooth — and the share on sale barely moves after the first few years.
| Released | Games | Median price | On sale | Median discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 51 | $2.32 | 69% | -80% |
| 2007 | 71 | $1.44 | 90% | -75% |
| 2008 | 128 | $3.00 | 78% | -75% |
| 2009 | 232 | $2.12 | 78% | -76% |
| 2010 | 180 | $1.99 | 81% | -76% |
| 2011 | 207 | $1.84 | 85% | -75% |
| 2012 | 270 | $1.65 | 93% | -80% |
| 2013 | 404 | $1.79 | 92% | -80% |
| 2014 | 1,226 | $1.59 | 85% | -78% |
| 2015 | 1,645 | $1.82 | 74% | -76% |
| 2016 | 2,096 | $1.99 | 68% | -75% |
| 2017 | 2,141 | $2.21 | 60% | -77% |
| 2018 | 2,108 | $2.98 | 52% | -76% |
| 2019 | 1,952 | $3.88 | 51% | -75% |
| 2020 | 2,213 | $3.99 | 50% | -75% |
| 2021 | 2,356 | $4.49 | 51% | -75% |
| 2022 | 2,476 | $4.99 | 49% | -75% |
| 2023 | 2,857 | $4.99 | 49% | -70% |
| 2024 | 3,585 | $5.74 | 50% | -60% |
| 2025 | 4,137 | $7.99 | 43% | -50% |
| 2026 | 2,074 | $9.30 | 42% | -35% |
Which genres cost the most
A game counts toward every genre it is tagged with. Genres with fewer than 200 reviewed games are left out.
| Genre | Games | Median price | On sale | Median discount | At lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sexual Content | 2,772 | $7.49 | 31% | -50% | 15% |
| Visual Novel | 2,620 | $7.49 | 38% | -62% | 12% |
| Nudity | 2,217 | $6.99 | 30% | -51% | 15% |
| Anime | 2,023 | $6.29 | 48% | -64% | 12% |
| RPG | 4,292 | $5.99 | 53% | -71% | 10% |
| Story Rich | 1,755 | $5.99 | 58% | -73% | 10% |
| Simulation | 5,098 | $4.99 | 49% | -70% | 9% |
| Exploration | 1,929 | $4.99 | 54% | -67% | 11% |
| Female Protagonist | 1,591 | $4.99 | 55% | -73% | 9% |
| Cute | 1,198 | $4.99 | 47% | -61% | 13% |
| Multiplayer | 1,711 | $4.72 | 67% | -75% | 7% |
| Pixel Graphics | 1,753 | $4.18 | 59% | -68% | 10% |
| Psychological Horror | 1,208 | $4.07 | 41% | -60% | 9% |
| Strategy | 4,308 | $4.06 | 61% | -75% | 8% |
| Horror | 2,297 | $3.99 | 48% | -68% | 9% |
| 2D | 1,782 | $3.99 | 46% | -66% | 11% |
| Singleplayer | 2,460 | $3.84 | 65% | -75% | 8% |
| Adventure | 8,061 | $3.73 | 56% | -75% | 9% |
| Arcade | 1,220 | $3.73 | 53% | -70% | 9% |
| Action | 7,641 | $3.18 | 61% | -75% | 8% |
| Puzzle | 3,531 | $2.99 | 53% | -73% | 8% |
| Casual | 7,105 | $2.94 | 45% | -70% | 8% |
| Point & Click | 1,422 | $2.51 | 65% | -75% | 10% |
| Platformer | 1,425 | $2.48 | 66% | -76% | 7% |
| Indie | 8,786 | $2.18 | 55% | -75% | 6% |
Which publishers discount the most
The 30 publishers with the most reviewed games in the catalogue, ranked by the share of their games on sale today.
| Publisher | Games | Median price | On sale | Median discount | At lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devolver Digital | 132 | $2.08 | 100% | -80% | 17% |
| indie.io | 102 | $1.73 | 100% | -73% | 13% |
| Daedalic Entertainment | 92 | $0.89 | 100% | -91% | 7% |
| Microids | 90 | $1.28 | 100% | -81% | 6% |
| Paradox Interactive | 69 | $2.49 | 100% | -75% | 4% |
| GrabTheGames | 69 | $0.67 | 100% | -81% | 1% |
| THQ Nordic | 142 | $1.86 | 99% | -75% | 4% |
| Artifex Mundi | 77 | $2.03 | 99% | -75% | 5% |
| tinyBuild | 72 | $2.27 | 99% | -80% | 8% |
| Fulqrum Publishing | 114 | $0.83 | 98% | -84% | 4% |
| SEGA | 108 | $6.47 | 98% | -73% | 6% |
| Conglomerate 5 | 97 | $0.41 | 96% | -86% | 1% |
| Strategy First | 96 | $0.99 | 96% | -80% | 0% |
| 2K | 70 | $1.42 | 96% | -82% | 10% |
| Square Enix | 138 | $10.00 | 94% | -70% | 5% |
| Nacon | 102 | $2.77 | 92% | -90% | 9% |
| SA Industry | 84 | $0.45 | 92% | -90% | 14% |
| Ubisoft | 130 | $4.88 | 87% | -75% | 0% |
| My Way Games | 70 | $0.54 | 86% | -89% | 9% |
| Electronic Arts | 101 | $4.99 | 81% | -75% | 7% |
| KOMODO | 70 | $7.24 | 76% | -60% | 11% |
| KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. | 84 | $23.07 | 75% | -52% | 6% |
| Shiravune | 68 | $8.99 | 71% | -60% | 21% |
| PlayWay S.A. | 76 | $6.10 | 65% | -79% | 5% |
| Kagura Games | 206 | $11.99 | 60% | -30% | 45% |
| MangaGamer | 69 | $14.99 | 58% | -50% | 10% |
| PLAYISM | 99 | $5.42 | 55% | -70% | 14% |
| Unknown | 177 | $3.99 | 53% | -75% | 5% |
| Sekai Project | 110 | $9.99 | 51% | -75% | 5% |
| Mango Party | 80 | $9.99 | 6% | -55% | 5% |
Keyshops vs official stores
Of the 15,024 reviewed games sold both by an official store and by a third-party key marketplace, the marketplace is cheaper for 80% — and when it is, the median saving against the cheapest official store is 60%. What a "keyshop" means here, and why buyer protection differs, is on the methodology page; the per-store standings are on the store guides.
Method
- Population: every game in the playze.io catalogue with at least one live priced offer, excluding free-to-play titles, DLC and gift cards. "Reviewed" means at least 50 Steam user reviews.
- Price: the lowest current price for the game across every store we compare, in USD (US region). Discounts are the store's own, checked against the real list price where a store inflates its "regular" price.
- "Lowest tracked" is the lowest price we have observed for the game since we began tracking it; for part of the catalogue that history is short, so the share at lowest is an upper bound.
- Medians throughout, never means. A publisher's row needs 15 reviewed games, a genre's 200, a release year's 30.
- Figures recompute every six hours from live prices. The page went live on 2026-09-09.
Full details of data sources and store classification are on the methodology page.
Using these figures
Free to quote, chart or republish, with a link to this page as the source (https://playze.io/research/pc-game-prices). For the underlying per-game data, or a cut by region or store, email info@playze.io.