The Big Game Engine Report of 2025

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The Big Game Engine Report of 2025
End of the Era of In -House Engines

Table of Contents
State of Game Engines
Deep Dive – Unreal Engine
Deep Dive – Smaller Public Engines
5 -7
13 -15
16 -17
Game Engine Market Share Trends 8 -12
2
Game Engines Popularity by Genre 18 -19

Game engines space has been changing rapidly with strong established public
engines winning share from historically dominant custom game engines
3
Overview of the Report
Overview:
• This report explores the game engines used in games released on Steam over time .
Summary
• Unity, Unreal Engine and custom game engines of large AAA studios continue to dominate the game engine market .
• However, the trends have been shifting significantly over the last 10 years, especially so in the last 5.
• Unreal Engine is quickly winning share from custom engines, becoming the go to game engine for many AAA studios.
• Unity has also started to see an impact as UE5 competes with Unity over simplicity and user experience, often
becoming the preferred platform even among indie developers.
Methodology
• The methodology relies on VGI’s estimations and tagging of games against game engines. The final slides of the report
delve more into methodology .
• We capture game engine data for over 13,000 games on Steam .

This report looks at 3 groups of game engines – from the industry leaders to
smaller open -source projects
4
Key Game Engines Covered in the Report
Tier 1
Public Engines
Tier 2
Public Engines
Custom In -House Game
Engines
Unreal Engine and Unity have been the dominant publicly available
third -party game engines for a long time
Other third -party game engines have a significantly smaller market
share, but are often used by indie developers
In-house engines are proprietary tools built by large developers for
their specific needs

State of Game Engines
5

Over half of the games released in 2024 were made in Unity, but only 26% of
the units sold as Unreal Engine and custom AAA engines dominate large games
6
Overview of Game Engine Popularity on Steam in 2024
51%
28%
5%
4%
10%
2% 26%
31%
41%
1%
1%
0%
Number of Games Released
in 2024 by Game Engine
All Units Sold in 2024
by Game Engine 1
Notes: Data includes only games that have sold at least 1 000 units over their lifetime. Games with almost no sales would dis tor t the picture
1 – Includes all units sold in 2024, including for games that were release pre -2024
2 – Vast majority of “other” engines are custom game engines built by large studios for internal purposes ( eg Frostbite, RAGE, Creation Engine)
Commentary:
• Unity is still the dominant game engine in terms
of sheer volume of games being released on
Steam
• However, in terms of actual units sold, both
custom in -house engines as well as Unreal
Engine beat Unity in 2024
• Godot, RPG Maker, GameMaker and other
similar public engines count for just over 10% of
all games released, but barely 2% of the actual
units sold on Steam
Unreal Engine
Unity
Godot
GameMaker
Other 2
Ren’Py

Smaller games still skew heavily towards Unity while larger end of the market
gets increasingly dominated by custom game engines
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Game Engine Mix by Size of Games
50%
48%
35%
22%
23%
27%
32%
31%
13%
6%
5%
14%
19%
29%
46%
Tiny Games (Under 1k Units)
Small Games (1k -100k Units)
Medium Games (100k -1M Units)
1% Large Games (1M+ Units)
Unity Unreal Engine Godot & GameMaker Other
All Units Sold in 2024 by Game Engine by Game Size Commentary:
• Smaller games, especially indie titles, are more
likely to be built in Unity. Godot and
GameMaker also do relatively well in that space.
• Notably, Unity and Unreal Engine have strong
presence in every size category of games.
• Larger game studios have built their internal
engines for over ten years and still continue to
rely on them heavily.

Game Engine Market Share Trends
8

Unity has been the preferred choice by over 50% of games made on Steam
since 2021, but Unreal Engine, Godot and GameMaker have gained share
9
Game Engine Market Share on Steam Over Time – # of Games Released
9%
27% 31%
42% 46% 46% 44% 48% 46% 53% 52% 50% 50%
17%
14% 8%
13%
15% 16% 20% 22% 21%
23% 24% 26% 28%
4%
7% 4% 5% 4% 6%
6% 8% 8% 9%
71%
56% 58%
41% 33% 33% 31% 26% 27% 18% 16% 16% 13%
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
4%
4% 3%
Unreal Engine
Unity
Godot & GameMaker
Other
Commentary:
• Over 70% of games released in 2012 were made with custom engines –this has declined to only 13% by 2024
• Unreal Engine keeps winning market share year by year while Unity has seen a slight decline since 2021
• Godot and GameMaker have also grown in the recent years, albeit mostly among smaller games
Number of Games Released by Year by Game Engine

In terms of units, custom engines still dominate, however, Unreal Engine 5 has
had a very strong 2024 with more and more studios opting for UE5 instead
10
Game Engine Market Share on Steam Over Time – # of Units Sold
12% 15% 15% 18% 19% 20% 25% 27% 27% 27% 26% 13% 14% 16% 22% 20% 19% 15% 17% 19% 19% 31%
74% 69% 66% 59% 60% 60% 59% 55% 53% 52% 42%
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
2%
1% 2% 2%
1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 2%
Unreal Engine
Unity
Godot & GameMaker
Other
Commentary:
• Custom game engines have been losing share year by year , with less than half of the units sold in 2024 coming from custom engines
• Unity and Unreal Engine had almost equal market shares up to Covid ; Unity saw a big jump in 2020, but hasn’t grown significantly since
• Unreal Engine lost share in 2020 as major Unreal project s were delayed during Covid and teams were preparing for UE5 to launch
• Ever since UE5, Unreal Engine has won back its lost share, culminating in a very strong 2024 (some of the biggest games of that year were
built in Unreal Engine, such as Black Myth: Wukong)
Number of Game Units Sold by Year by Game Engine
Custom
engines make
up less than
half of all
units sold for
the first time

VGI estimates that custom engines will continue to be swapped for Unreal
Engine while Unity struggles to capture additional share
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Game Engine Market Shares on Steam, 2020, 2024 and Estimated 2030
25% 26% 28%
15%
31%
40%
5% 59%
42%
27%
1%
2020
2%
2024 2030 e
Other
Godot & GameMaker
Unreal Engine
Unity
Unity will continue to be
challenged by Godot and
GameMaker on the smaller
games end and will struggle to
win share from Unreal Engine.
Still, capturing share from
custom game engines will help
Unity retain its position
Game Engine Share on Steam, by Units Sold
Many studios have announced moving from custom engines
to UE for some of their games in the recent years and we
expect that trend to continue

It does not always make sense to switch away from an in -house game engine,
but there are many cases where a third -party engine can be beneficial
12
Rationales for and Against Moving Away From Custom Engines
+ Positives of a Public Engine
• Immediate start – For a new studio, being able to start on
“day one” rather than having to build your own engine is
a huge advantage
• Known quality – Engines like UE with Nanite and Lumen
are proven quality in terms of performance and graphical
fidelity unlike a new in -house engine
• No in -house maintenance – Much cheaper than
maintaining a custom engine of a similar quality
• Talent pool & training – Access to talent from other
companies who already know how to use a version of the
engine. Public engines also have a tonne of
documentation and training materials that don’t always
exist for in -house engines
– Negatives of a Public Engine
• Price increases – Market dominance allows a few engines
to dictate pricing
• Customization requirement – Many projects still require
heavy modifications, limiting workload reduction
• Cost of moving engines – Studios with existing legacy
engines and tenured employees require significant time
investment to switch
• Tailor -made – Custom engines designed for a particular
subgenre can allow creation of completely unique
approaches, giving them an edge
• Lack of control – Reliance on another company and their
roadmap for building out features

Deep Dive –
Unreal Engine
13

New Unreal Engine version takes 3 -4 years to feed through to game launches;
UE5 is now maturing, having made up 72% of all UE projects in 2024
14
Evolution of Unreal Engine Versions
100% 100%
29%
69%
86% 90% 93% 97% 98% 99%
22%
54%
72%
71%
31%
14% 10% 7%
75%
45%
28%
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
3%
2019
2%
2020
1%
2021
2%
2022
1%
2023 2024
UE3
UE4
UE5
Number of Games Released on Unreal Engine, by Year by UE Version

Some of the largest games of last year were built on Unreal Engine, including a
few of the surprise Indie hits
15
Adoption of Unreal Engine on Steam & Console
Satisfactory
Released: 8 Jun 2024
Engine: UE5
Palworld
Released: 19 Jan 2024
Engine: UE5
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
Released: 21 May 2024
Engine: UE5
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Released: 29 Feb 2024
Engine: UE4
Black Myth: Wukong
Released: 20 Aug 2024
Engine: UE5
Manor Lords
Released: 26 Apr 2024
Engine: UE4
S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2
Released: 20 Nov 2024
Engine: UE5
Tekken 8
Released: 25 Jan 2024
Engine: UE5

Deep Dive –
Smaller Public Engines
16

Godot has been the only smaller game engine that has seen significant growth
over the last years (though still remaining very small VS larger incumbents)
17
Small Public Game Engine Growth Over Time
0M
5M
10M
15M
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
+144%
Over 2 /3 of the growth since 2020 has
been driven by Godot Ren’Py
RPG Maker
GameMaker
Godot

Game Engines Popularity
by Genre
18

Game Engine mix varies widely by sub -genre – high graphics requirement
games skew UE while strategy & sim skews Unity
19
Game Engine Mix by Sub -Genre of Games – Units Sold in 2024
7% 10% 11% 16%
36% 37% 42% 42% 43%
52%
54%
67%
21%
48%
46% 39%
8%
58%
14%
39%
21% 6%
38%
23%
66%
34%
17% 24% 29% 37%
9%
1%
Action RPG
0%
Souls -like
2%
JRPG
2%
FPS
0%
Platformer
0%
4X Roguelike
1% 0%
Open World
Survival Craft
Turn -based
0%
City Builder
Other
Godot
Unreal Engine
Unity

Learn More With VGI
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This report created using only the data from the Video Game Insights.
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Appendix
23

Definitions and methodology
Glossary
Terms Definitions
AA /AAA games Large budget games developed by massive teams and companies. AAA game budgets are typically over $100M to develop
CAGR Compound annual growth rate
CCU Concurrent users – active players in -game
FtP Free to play games
Full Game Revenue Revenue from the direct sale of a game, excluding any DLC and MTX revenues
IAP In-app purchases
Indie games Games developed by independent studios. This covers a large range of studios from 1 person hobby projects to larger studios o f a
few hundred employees, but budgets still fall far short of the AAA game levels
MTX Microtransactions
Unit Sales Estimate Using different estimation methods, including an algorithm based on our internal database of actual sales and the Boxleiter
method to get from Steam review numbers to estimated sales. Detailed overview of the method is highlighted in the section bel ow
Revenue Estimate Estimated units sold multiplied by the price at the time. This is gross revenue, including the Steam cut, but adjusted for lo cal
currencies, returned products and discounts
More information:
Definitions: https://vginsights.com/about
Methodology: https://vginsights.com/insights/article/steam -sales -estimation -methodology -and -accuracy
Email: Support@vginsights.com
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Legal Disclaimer
Legal Stuff. We’ll Keep It Brief
Video Game Insights (VGI) is in no way affiliated with Steam or Valve.
All data provided in this report is freely available and can be shared without any restrictions.
All data provided in this report is based on estimates and should be considered as such.
VGI uses third -party suppliers and applications, often internet enabled. VG Insights can therefore not guarantee the accuracy of all data coming from third parties. This might be due to
mis -tagging or mis -reporting of data and VG Insights will adjust and fix the issues when highlighted to us.
Limitation of liability
VGI hereby declines any and all liability for damage, consequential loss and/or indirect loss owing to the use of VG Insights ’ d ata and services.
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