According to VG Insights, the number of soulslike releases on Steam has increased 41-fold in the last ten years — by 4100%. In 2024, 371 such projects were released on the platform, compared to only 9 in 2015.
About 60% of all releases come from Asian developers, and 97% of buyers of games in the genre are also from Asia. The study showed that until 2022, the market was controlled by AA publishers, but now two-thirds of all new Soulslikes are released by large studios.
In 2025, Black Myth: Wukong became the sales leader on Steam, consolidating the success of Chinese and American players as the main consumers of the genre.
The growing popularity of the genre has led to oversaturation: even large studios, like NeoBards Entertainment, are already annoyed that their projects like Silent Hill F are called soulslike.
But the trend is declining — in 2025, only 207 such games were released on Steam. Perhaps the market will finally begin to breathe more freely.
