The Latest Breaking News from Chris Zukowski

After earning $1 million on Steam from a game that took 4 months to make, stunned devs end up in Valve's coveted "chocolate tier"

It took "exactly 1 week"

GamesRadar · Aug 4

Valve made it roughly 15 times harder for indie games to reach a coveted Steam ranking, but one expert says an understated new Steam feature is doing god's work

If you aren't checking your Steam calendar, you should be

GamesRadar · Jul 1

"That is an $11,000 gold texture": Steam researcher says "supporter packs" make a lot of free money because PC gamers love to spend on their favorite games

Steam users will turn up for some day-one DLC, it turns out

GamesRadar · Mar 31

A terrifying 20,282 games were released on Steam in 2025, and just 608 managed to get 1,000 reviews, expert finds: "We might be in a bit of an indie golden age"

"The numbers are going in the right direction"

GamesRadar · Jan 28

Valve sends annual chocolates to Steam devs who earn roughly $800,000, and before Peak the folks at Aggro Crab got pretty sick of looking across the hall to see the Slay the Spire team open Gaben candy every year

"Every year they got f***ing chocolates that we didn't"

GamesRadar · Jan 9

Steam expert hails PC gaming "golden age" of rough-but-fun games that devs can make quickly and players love, from Peak to Megabonk: "Steam players want fun first"

Lethal Company, RV There Yet, Slots & Daggers, Cloverpit, the list goes on

GamesRadar · Nov 7, 2025

Paying Valve $108,000 just to be on Steam is "totally worth it," says dev of roguelike strategy game made in 10 months which has now earned over $360,000

Gnomes is exactly what it sounds like: a game about gnomes

GamesRadar · Aug 25, 2025

Steam expert points to the games you never see quietly "making hundreds of thousands of dollars for small devs" as a key sign "Steam is doing okay"

"That's kind of what I like about Steam," says Chris Zukowski

GamesRadar · Jun 3, 2025

"Don't tell Valve I told you this": Industry expert warns devs that Steam "is an engine that turns magic into money," and you can't break into "Real Steam" until you have the magic

Chris Zukowski loves Real Steam

GamesRadar · Mar 19, 2025

Steam expert says devs need 250 reviews "in the first month" after launch or else it's probably "not gonna happen," but admits one ingenious factory game defied the odds: "They somehow pulled it off"

Beltmatic managed to gain success months after launch

GamesRadar · Mar 19, 2025