According to TechSpot, Valve’s Steam Replay 2025 feature is now live, showing users their personal stats and aggregated platform data for the year. The big takeaway is that only 14% of all Steam playtime in 2025 was spent on games released this year. Games from the last 1-7 years captured the largest share at 44% of playtime, while classics from 8 or more years ago were a close second at 40%. Compared to 2024, time spent on these older “classic” titles has actually increased from 37%, while time on the 1-7 year category dropped by 3%. The feature also includes personalized stats like achievements unlocked, favorite genres, and a spider graph of your most-played game categories.
The Enduring Legacy of Live-Service Games
So, what’s going on here? It’s not that 2025 was a bad year for games. We got heavy hitters like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. But look at the SteamDB most-played list. The top spots are perpetually held by Counter-Strike 2, DOTA 2, and PUBG: Battlegrounds. These aren’t just “old games.” They’re platforms, hobbies, and social spaces that people have invested thousands of hours into. New content drops, balance patches, and esports scenes keep them feeling current. Why jump ship to a new 70-hour RPG when your friends and your ranked grind are all in a game you already own? The business model, for better or worse, is designed for this exact kind of retention.
The Trust Factor and a Massive Backlog
Here’s the other thing. A game that’s 8+ years old is a known quantity. All the bugs are (usually) patched, the DLC is out, there are mountains of community guides, and it’s probably on sale for 75% off. There’s very little risk in that purchase. Compare that to a brand-new AAA release that might be a broken mess at launch or a live-service game that could shut down in 18 months. We’ve been burned before. And let’s be honest, everyone’s Steam library is a graveyard of unplayed games. That “Recent Favorites” category (1-7 years) is basically our collective backlog of well-reviewed titles we finally got around to. I think this data is less about rejecting new games and more about the sheer volume of quality older titles competing for our attention.
What This Means for the Future
This trend is probably going to keep strengthening. The games-as-a-service titans aren’t going anywhere. And the classic catalog from the late 2000s and 2010s—the Skyrims, the Portal 2s, the Dark Souls—those are entering their “all-time classic” phase for a new generation. It creates a weird tension for publishers. Do you bet the farm on a new IP that has to fight this entrenched ecosystem on day one? Or do you just remake/remaster/re-release something you know people already love? We’re seeing a lot of the latter. The barrier for a new game to break into the cultural zeitgeyst and stay there is astronomically high now. It needs to be an instant, polished classic or have a live-service hook that can compete for years. Basically, it’s a tough time to be a new game, but a great time to have a giant library of old ones.
Check Your Own Stats
If you want to see how you personally stacked up against the global data, you can check out your own Steam Replay 2025 page. It’s always a fun, slightly confronting look at where your time actually went. Did you contribute to that 14% of new game playtime, or were you, like most of us, lost in a classic or grinding an old favorite? The spider graph showing your genre habits is particularly revealing. Mine always screams “strategy and RPGs,” which explains why my “new game” percentage is perpetually tiny. I’m too busy finishing games from 2015.
