Soulslike games are booming: 4000% growth in just ten years

Just ten years ago the Soulslike genre was nothing more than a charming little niche. Today though the story is very different and since 2015 the genre has boomed at a staggering rate. Especially if you look at Steam where a new study points out that the number of games tagged as "Soulslike" has skyrocketed from just nine a decade ago - to 371 in the last year.

That's a 4100% increase and at the centre of it all stands the Asian market (and developers), who alone are responsible for almost 60% of all the new games and 97% of sales. Data also suggests that it's no longer just small teams that drive the genre. As a matter of fact it is the big AAA publishers that account for most of the new titles, almost two thirds. Despite this there are some signs that hint at things slowing down.

Looking at 2025 thus far there has "only" been 207 new Soulslike games released on Steam. Something that potentially signals that developers might be stepping back a bit or noticing some saturation and market fatigue. Still, games like Black Myth: Wukong and Silent Hill f boasts great sales. One could therefore argue that even though there are fewer releases the genre continues to dominate.