We're in a golden era of game demos

GamesWe’re in a golden era of game demosWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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Cryptmaster(Image credit: Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games)

Cryptmaster - a wrinkled alien creature wearing a crown in all black and white

Lightyear Frontier(Image credit: Frame Break)

Lightyear Frontier

Steam Next Fests are still a rallying point for demos and a convenient moment to reveal gameplay or release dates, but the proliferation of demos has expanded well beyond the walls of these week-long events. There areover 13,000 free demosavailable on Steam right now—thousands more than just the festival accounts for. We’re in a bona fide golden era of game demos.

It isn’t just a deluge of questionable quality demos either. We’re routinely being treated to hours with great games we were already anticipating. Like in thegood old days of shareware, sometimes we even get the ideal demo experience:Finding infinitely replayable joyin just a tiny slice of a full game.

Sky: Children of the Light(Image credit: Thatgamecompany)

Sky Children of the Light - three characters in bright capes walk together pointing towards a mountain with light shining into the sky

Demos aren’t just back; they’re booming.

Animal Crossing-like vampire game Moonlight Peaks debuted its first demo during that same Next Fest week. It was a short, curated look at the game that focused on decorating your house and yard. That demo did end with the Next Fest, but the developers came back only two months laterwith a new demo. Not a return of the old one, but a totally different, updated demo with its own patch notes about improvements made to keyboard controls and character art.

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These are the kinds of things we’ve long been used to developers doing as part of an early access period where we’ve already bought in. Now it seems some are just doing it for free.

Demos are the meta now

Polishing and publishing a demo has long been a risky prospect that involves siphoning development time off to a version of the game that doesn’t directly translate to a purchase. I’ve started to worry that the big demo boom is an unsustainable trend—and it may yet be—but something here must be working for developers. As we speculated back in 2021, the feedback loop of Steam’s ecosystem may be the biggest factor in the explosion of demos over the past several years.

Indika(Image credit: Odd Meter)

Indika looks upwards at a towering factory interior.

During the big Next Fest week, Steam promotes participating demos, which are incredibly easy to download and start playing within a couple minutes. Just about every demo I play has a button on its main menu reminding me to add it to my Steam wishlist, if I’ve not already. Indie developers especially have long been reminding us the importance of wishlist numbers and how critical they are to a game’s continued promotion on Steam. So the Next Fest has become yet another way, and I would hazard a guess the most reliable way, to attract and retain new wishlisters.

The potential payoff has skyrocketed too, because demos can go viral, it turns out. This time last year, we were shocked when the demo for fantasy extraction game Dark and Darker shot up into the top 10 games being played on Steam. Trials andlegal tribulationsfor Dark and Darker since then notwithstanding, a demo breaking into the top concurrent players on the platform was wild.

So don’t stress too much over cramming everything into a single week of Next Fest. With no end of them in sight, and the trend towards unending and updated demos, we’re getting more playtime than ever with upcoming games.

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The best part of Marvel Rivals Season 1 is Mister Fantastic’s obnoxiously fun chest-bump attack and his ridiculously OP kitElden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anything

Mister Fantastic mid ultimate

The best part of Marvel Rivals Season 1 is Mister Fantastic’s obnoxiously fun chest-bump attack and his ridiculously OP kit

Nightreign knight holds his fist in menacing fashion

Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anything

LatestTeam Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40KSee more latest►

Latest

Team Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40K

A valuable TF2 hat shimmers in the moonlight.

Team Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40K

See more latest►

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The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Demos are the meta now#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Demos are the meta now