It's not just Steam: New game pages created per day on Itch.io have doubled in the last two months, with AI slop the likely culprit
Indie game platform Itch.io has seen a doubling in the number of new game pages created per day over the past two months, with AI-generated games likely the cause. The increase matches the rise in Steam demos at the recent Next Fest, from around 4,000 to over 8,000. While Itch.io doesn't explicitly attribute the surge to AI, it implies as much, leaving users to guess the reason behind the sudden influx of game pages.
The surge correlates with the launch of Anthropic's Claude Opus 5, which is adept at reverse-engineering code, leading to AI-generated games appearing on platforms like Steam. As of now, 7.5% of Itch.io's 1.77 million listed games are AI-generated. However, downloads and purchases for these AI games have not doubled, suggesting they're adding clutter without benefit to anyone.
Some suggest banning AI-generated games, but that could be impractical and ineffective. Another option is to let the trend run its course, with some believing the novelty may wear off as people move on to the next big thing.
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