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What do you think is the total number of playable games on PC?

Maddoxswe

Maddoxswe

Member
is this a question ? What is the purpose ?

Confused Joe Biden GIF by CBS News
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
NES 1337
SNES 1757
N64 388
PS1 4000+
PS2 4000+
PS3 5159
PS4 3395

I'd guess it's far, far less than 1 million. Maybe 200,000 at the most considering all the indie games.
 
Last edited:
jshackles

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Punished Miku said:
NES 1337
SNES 1757
N64 388
PS1 4000+
PS2 4000+
PS3 5159
PS4 3395

I'd guess it's far, far less than 1 million. Maybe 200,000 at the most considering all the indie games.
Click to expand...
There are over 100,000 games on Steam now. But even that's pretty shy of OPs million figure.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Member
Punished Miku said:
NES 1337
SNES 1757
N64 388
PS1 4000+
PS2 4000+
PS3 5159
PS4 3395

I'd guess it's far, far less than 1 million. Maybe 200,000 at the most considering all the indie games.
Click to expand...
"games" is a very low threshold though. Browser clickers and flash games and text games would also count, no? I'm not sure we're nearing a million but it's hard to quantify all of that unregulated/unrated shlock that's technically playable on a PC.

*edit*

Plus there's the GOTYAY - Snowcraft
iu
 
Last edited:
Maddoxswe

Maddoxswe

Member
So chat-gpt the almighty give us a good answer how many games including emulated games there are,

Rough Total Estimation:​

  • Native PC Games: 100,000 - 200,000 (Including indie and major titles).
  • Emulated Console and Handheld Games: 50,000 - 60,000.
  • Emulated Arcade Games: ~7,000.
  • Emulated DOS and Classic Windows Games: ~15,000 - 20,000.
  • Homebrew and Fan-made Games: ~2,000 - 5,000.
  • Mobile Games on PC (via Emulators): ~400,000.

    Grand Total: 500,000 to 700,000 games.
Even with android games i don't understand where OP got his numbers from.
 
Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Pejo said:
"games" is a very low threshold though. Browser clickers and flash games and text games would also count, no? I'm not sure we're nearing a million but it's hard to quantify all of that unregulated/unrated shlock that's technically playable on a PC.
Click to expand...
I know you ain't just called Snowcraft "shlock".

snowcraft.png
 
ssringo

ssringo

Member
backlinko.com

Steam Usage and Catalog Stats for 2024

Interesting Steam user stats. Includes data on users, games and more.
backlinko.com backlinko.com

Quick google search puts over 100k on Steam.

There's lots of hentai games on places like dlsite (the quality might be questionable but hey).

Do we count stuff like romhacks or mods that completely overhaul a game?

I think 1 million isn't that unreasonable depending on what we're counting.
 
rodrigolfp

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Maddoxswe said:
So chat-gpt the almighty give us a good answer how many games including emulated games there are,

Rough Total Estimation:​

  • Native PC Games: 100,000 - 200,000 (Including indie and major titles).
  • Emulated Console and Handheld Games: 50,000 - 60,000.
  • Emulated Arcade Games: ~7,000.
  • Emulated DOS and Classic Windows Games: ~15,000 - 20,000.
  • Homebrew and Fan-made Games: ~2,000 - 5,000.
  • Mobile Games on PC (via Emulators): ~400,000.

    Grand Total: 500,000 to 700,000 games.
Even with android games i don't understand where OP got his numbers from.
Click to expand...
What's the difference between native, classic windows, homebrew and fan-made games?? Aren't they all native??
 
Holammer

Holammer

Member
Punished Miku said:
NES 1337
SNES 1757
N64 388
PS1 4000+
PS2 4000+
PS3 5159
PS4 3395

I'd guess it's far, far less than 1 million. Maybe 200,000 at the most considering all the indie games.
Click to expand...
A 5200 517
C64 7373
Amiga 3888
Speccy 5954
MSX 1419
GBA 1538
GB 1043
DS 3468
3DS 1630
Switch 4480
arcade 4666

Total: 35 976

Most of the micro numbers are lowballing and there are plenty more systems.
 
The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Member
Sentenza said:
There are "master accounts" on Steam (like someone that valve gives -or used to give- to the press) that unlock almost all games available by default.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know, but I dont think hes one of those at least based on his site, he hasnt done much at all. Kinda lame if hes abusing that power, though I do see him buying lots of stuff in activity.
 
Thick Thighs Save Lives

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
If we also take into account all the Japanese indie titles (doujins) available on DL Site, and then also all the "games" from itch.io which are mostly prototypes done in a few days then the number should exceed the 1M mark.
 
Last edited:
HogIsland

HogIsland

Member
If you count emulation, a PC plays probably 80-90% of all games ever made. I kinda doubt it's a million tho. Maybe like 300k.
 
Maddoxswe

Maddoxswe

Member
rodrigolfp said:
What's the difference between native, classic windows, homebrew and fan-made games?? Aren't they all native??
Click to expand...

1. Native PC Games:​

  • Steam: As of 2024, Steam has over 50,000 games available.
  • GOG (Good Old Games): GOG offers over 6,000 games, many of which are older PC classics.
  • Epic Games Store, Origin, Uplay, etc.: Other storefronts collectively offer thousands more.
  • Indie and DRM-free sites: Sites like Itch.io contain hundreds of thousands of smaller or independent games, although many may overlap with titles on Steam and other platforms.
If we estimate, the number of unique native PC games could range from 100,000 to 200,000.

2. Games Playable Through Emulation:​

Emulators allow PC gamers to play titles originally developed for other systems. Here's a rough estimate of games available for popular systems that can be emulated on PC:

Retro Consoles:​

  • Nintendo Entertainment System (NES): ~1,000 games.
  • Super Nintendo (SNES): ~1,750 games.
  • Nintendo 64 (N64): ~400 games.
  • Game Boy/Game Boy Color: ~1,500 games.
  • Game Boy Advance (GBA): ~1,500 games.
  • Nintendo DS: ~1,800 games.
  • Nintendo 3DS: ~1,300 games.
  • Nintendo Switch: ~5,000 games.
  • PlayStation (PS1): ~4,000 games.
  • PlayStation 2 (PS2): ~3,800 games.
  • PlayStation Portable (PSP): ~1,370 games.
  • PlayStation 3 (PS3): ~2,000 games.
  • Sega Genesis/Mega Drive: ~1,000 games.
  • Sega Saturn: ~600 games.
  • Sega Dreamcast: ~620 games.
  • Arcade (via MAME): ~7,000 games (varies depending on version of MAME).
  • Atari 2600/7800: ~600 games.
  • Commodore 64: ~10,000 games.
  • Amiga: ~5,000 games.
  • Neo Geo: ~150 games.

Handhelds and Others:​

  • PS Vita: ~1,500 games.
  • Nintendo Wii: ~1,500 games.
  • Nintendo Wii U: ~800 games.

3. PC Emulated Platforms (Non-Retro):​

  • DOSBox (for DOS games): The DOS era includes an estimated 6,000-10,000 games.
  • Windows (Older PC games): There are tens of thousands of older Windows games not available on modern platforms, many of which are playable via virtual machines or compatibility layers.
  • ScummVM (for point-and-click adventures): Around 200+ adventure games.

4. Homebrew and Fan-made Games:​

Many systems have extensive libraries of homebrew or fan-made games, further increasing the total. This is especially true for platforms like NES, SNES, and Game Boy, which have thriving homebrew scenes. There are easily several thousand such games across all systems.

5. Mobile Games Playable on PC (via Emulators like Bluestacks):​

  • Android games: There are over 400,000 games on Google Play Store, many of which can be played on PC via emulators.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Member
Maddoxswe said:

1. Native PC Games:​

  • Steam: As of 2024, Steam has over 50,000 games available.
  • GOG (Good Old Games): GOG offers over 6,000 games, many of which are older PC classics.
  • Epic Games Store, Origin, Uplay, etc.: Other storefronts collectively offer thousands more.
  • Indie and DRM-free sites: Sites like Itch.io contain hundreds of thousands of smaller or independent games, although many may overlap with titles on Steam and other platforms.
If we estimate, the number of unique native PC games could range from 100,000 to 200,000.

2. Games Playable Through Emulation:​

Emulators allow PC gamers to play titles originally developed for other systems. Here's a rough estimate of games available for popular systems that can be emulated on PC:

Retro Consoles:​

  • Nintendo Entertainment System (NES): ~1,000 games.
  • Super Nintendo (SNES): ~1,750 games.
  • Nintendo 64 (N64): ~400 games.
  • Game Boy/Game Boy Color: ~1,500 games.
  • Game Boy Advance (GBA): ~1,500 games.
  • Nintendo DS: ~1,800 games.
  • Nintendo 3DS: ~1,300 games.
  • Nintendo Switch: ~5,000 games.
  • PlayStation (PS1): ~4,000 games.
  • PlayStation 2 (PS2): ~3,800 games.
  • PlayStation Portable (PSP): ~1,370 games.
  • PlayStation 3 (PS3): ~2,000 games.
  • Sega Genesis/Mega Drive: ~1,000 games.
  • Sega Saturn: ~600 games.
  • Sega Dreamcast: ~620 games.
  • Arcade (via MAME): ~7,000 games (varies depending on version of MAME).
  • Atari 2600/7800: ~600 games.
  • Commodore 64: ~10,000 games.
  • Amiga: ~5,000 games.
  • Neo Geo: ~150 games.

Handhelds and Others:​

  • PS Vita: ~1,500 games.
  • Nintendo Wii: ~1,500 games.
  • Nintendo Wii U: ~800 games.

3. PC Emulated Platforms (Non-Retro):​

  • DOSBox (for DOS games): The DOS era includes an estimated 6,000-10,000 games.
  • Windows (Older PC games): There are tens of thousands of older Windows games not available on modern platforms, many of which are playable via virtual machines or compatibility layers.
  • ScummVM (for point-and-click adventures): Around 200+ adventure games.

4. Homebrew and Fan-made Games:​

Many systems have extensive libraries of homebrew or fan-made games, further increasing the total. This is especially true for platforms like NES, SNES, and Game Boy, which have thriving homebrew scenes. There are easily several thousand such games across all systems.

5. Mobile Games Playable on PC (via Emulators like Bluestacks):​

  • Android games: There are over 400,000 games on Google Play Store, many of which can be played on PC via emulators.
Click to expand...
Probably not a significant number, but MAME and arcade emulators would probably add another thousand or so?
 
MadchesterManc

MadchesterManc

Member
Depends. I have 2 PC's at home. My main up-to-date rig and an upgraded 'retro' one running old windows. Both can play games that the other can't most of the time 🤷‍♂️
 
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