This week I downloaded more than 10 different demos during Steam Next Fest, a pile of hobby homework that would have given me the sweats in past years. But this time I found myself neither stressed nor pressed to play through them all. Don't get me wrong—I did play them all and have plans for several more before the weekend is out—but this year I realized that even if each Next Fest has an expiration date, the wider game demo trend shows no risk of petering out. Demos aren't just back; they're booming.
Back in 2020, Steam ran its very first Next Fest event sharing hundreds of game demos with players as a salve for the cancellation of big in-person gaming conventions during Covid. I spent hours scrolling through the store hunting for games to try amidst the pile and yet still felt like I might have missed something great. It's no wonder some of us felt overwhelmed by the volume of it all.
