Nearly half of all games released on Steam in October 2026 disclosed the use of AI-generated content, almost double the rate from the same period last year. According to Reddit user u/ploz’s analysis of public data from approximately 63,600 games, the disclosure rate reached 49.9% for the month. Artwork was the most commonly reported use, followed by text translation, marketing materials and music.
Among games with AI disclosures, 63% cited artwork, while 30% reported using it for text and translation. Store-page and marketing materials accounted for 26%, followed by music at 21% and code at 16%. AI-generated voices appeared in just 7% of disclosures, while only 3% of games generated content in real time during gameplay.
Real-time generation can also create ongoing operating costs. According to the report, one popular game saw its AI service expenses climb so sharply in October that the developer was forced to take out a bank loan to keep offering its free demo.
The analysis also compared disclosures among developers with different release volumes. For developers that launched at least 10 games this year, 68% of their titles disclosed AI use. That figure fell to 37% among developers that released only one game. Review counts revealed a similar divide: 47% of games released this year with fewer than 10 reviews included an AI disclosure, compared with just 14% of titles with at least 1,000 reviews.
Valve began requiring developers to disclose certain uses of Generative AI in January 2024, which the analysis used as its starting point. At the time, only 1.7% of new releases carried an AI disclosure. The annual rate reached 13.2% in 2024, climbed to 24% in 2025 and hit 40.1% in 2026 through the end of the study period. October’s 49.9% marked the highest monthly figure recorded, up from 26.4% in October 2025.
However, the data only covers information voluntarily disclosed by developers and does not include games that used AI without reporting it. Valve also revised its rules in January 2026, shifting the focus toward AI-generated content that players can see or hear rather than tools used behind the scenes during development.
via： Dexerto