20% of Games Released on Steam Have Reportedly Used AI in 2025
As AI (Artificial Intelligence) continues to advance in its possibilities, it seems that many game developers are starting to see the “value” of it and what it can do for their games. From AI-generated art and marketing material to coding and building entire game assets, and even replacing voice actors and other occupations.
Despite a mixed general opinion, if not more negative, AI continues to grow at an alarming rate, which is now even more evident as a new study has revealed that out of all the games released on Steam this year, 20% of them have used AI in some way, shape, or form.
For Every Five Games Released, At Least One of Them Has Used AI This Year on Steam
Findings published by Totally Human have revealed that there are nearly 8000 games that have been released this year on Steam, which disclose that they use AI. The keyword here is “disclose” because Steam doesn’t mandate that studios have to tell people that they use AI. It’s all voluntary, meaning the number of games that use AI could be much higher than the ones we know now.
According to Ichiro Lambe’s research at Totally Human, approximately 60% of the AI used in games has been focused on creating visual assets. They provide a breakdown of the other categories where AI has been used.
- Visual Asset Generation: This is in about 60% of disclosures. Characters, backgrounds, 2D/3D models, textures, you name it.
- Audio Generation: Background music, yes, but also full-on voice-overs, narration, and character voices using text-to-speech tools like ElevenLabs.
- Text & Narrative Generation: Devs are using LLMs for everything from item descriptions and lore to brainstorming story arcs.
- Marketing & Promotional Materials: Short game descriptions; the “about this game” section; and banners (which overlap #1 a bit).
- Code/Game Logic: A ton of code generation assistance going on.
Again, this is only the information that has been voluntarily disclosed by game developers, meaning the number is likely far higher than what they found. Because there’s no rule saying that they absolutely have to disclose use of AI, it means that some games could be using it without anyone actually knowing.
I can’t imagine this number will shrink anytime soon, though, in the end, it depends on just how these games ultimately utilize AI. On one hand, a developer may use it to help make the flow of coding much easier. However, on the other hand, a game could be released that’s entirely built on AI-generated content, from its gameplay, music, and art, to the point where some apparent stealing goes unnoticed.
That could ultimately result in job losses, as evident by the recent layoffs at Microsoft, which reportedly led to employees being laid off so that AI could replace them.
It’s a bleak future, to be honest.
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