Every indie developer asks this question at some point: how much of my revenue does Steam actually take? The short answer is 30%. The longer answer involves tiers, regional pricing, refunds, taxes, and a bunch of math that changes the picture significantly. Let's walk through all of it so you know exactly what you're working with.
Steam's tiered revenue share structure
Steam's revenue split works on a tiered system based on your game's total gross revenue:
- •First $10 million in revenue: Steam takes 30%, you keep 70%
- •$10 million to $50 million: Steam takes 25%, you keep 75%
- •Above $50 million: Steam takes 20%, you keep 80%
These tiers apply per-game, not across your entire catalog. So if you release three games that each earn $5 million, you're paying the 30% rate on all of them. You'd need a single title to break $10 million before the lower rates kick in.
Valve introduced this tiered structure in late 2018, and it hasn't changed since. Before that, the standard cut was a flat 30% for everyone. The tiers were widely seen as a concession to AAA publishers threatening to leave the platform -- not something designed to help indie developers.
What this means for indie developers
Let's be direct: almost no indie game hits $10 million in revenue. The indie game revenue data paints a clear picture. The median indie game earns between $5,000 and $15,000 lifetime. Even games in the top 5% rarely crack $1 million.
So for the vast majority of indie developers, Steam's revenue share is effectively a flat 30%. The tiered structure is nice to know about, but it won't affect your planning or your bottom line. Plan on keeping 70% of your gross revenue as your starting point, and then subtract everything else we're about to cover.
The real take-home calculation
That 70% figure is just the beginning. Several other factors eat into your actual take-home, and most developers don't account for all of them until they see their first payout.
Regional pricing adjustments
If you follow Steam's recommended regional pricing (and you should -- our pricing strategy guide explains why), your effective revenue per sale drops. Players in countries like Brazil, Turkey, Argentina, and parts of Southeast Asia pay significantly less than your US dollar base price.
On average, regional pricing reduces your effective per-sale revenue by about 20-25% compared to your base price. The exact impact depends on your game's geographic sales mix. Games with large audiences in South America, Eastern Europe, and Asia see a bigger reduction. Games that sell primarily in the US and Western Europe see less.
Refunds
Steam's refund policy lets players return any game within 14 days of purchase if they've played less than 2 hours. Typical refund rates for indie games run 10-15%. Short games, buggy launches, and games whose store pages don't accurately represent gameplay tend to see higher refund rates.
Refunds come directly out of your revenue. If 12% of your buyers refund, your effective sales volume drops by 12%.
Payment processing and taxes
Steam handles payment processing, which is built into their 30% cut. But you're still responsible for your own income taxes, which vary depending on your country and business structure. In the US, you're looking at 15-30%+ of your net income going to federal and state taxes, depending on your bracket.
If you're outside the US, Valve may withhold US taxes on your earnings depending on your country's tax treaty status. Make sure your Steamworks tax information is set up correctly.
Putting it all together
Here's what a realistic take-home calculation looks like for an indie game priced at $14.99:
Gross revenue per sale (base price): $14.99
- 1.After regional pricing adjustment (~22% average reduction): $11.69 effective average per sale
- 2.After Steam's 30% cut: $8.18
- 3.After refunds (~12% average): $7.20
- 4.After income taxes (~25% effective rate): $5.40
That's roughly 36% of your listed base price actually landing in your bank account. Obviously the tax piece varies a lot, but the pre-tax take-home of about $7.20 per sale -- roughly 48% of your base price -- is a solid planning number.
Use the Revenue Calculator to model these deductions against your specific price point and projected sales volume.
How Steam compares to other storefronts
Steam's 30% cut is the standard that everyone else positions against. Here's how the alternatives stack up.
Epic Games Store: 12%
Epic's headline number is compelling. They take 12%, you keep 88%. If you use Unreal Engine, Epic waives its engine royalties for sales through EGS, making the effective rate even better for Unreal developers.
But the revenue share is only part of the equation. More on this below.
GOG: 30%
GOG takes the same 30% cut as Steam. Their selling point isn't a lower rate -- it's the DRM-free philosophy and the curation that comes with being a smaller, more selective storefront. GOG's audience is smaller but tends to be loyal and willing to pay full price.
itch.io: you choose
itch.io lets developers set their own revenue share, including 0%. The default suggestion is 10%, but you can change it to anything. The catch is that itch.io's audience is a fraction of Steam's, so you're keeping a bigger percentage of a much smaller pie.
Humble Store and other keyshops
Humble and similar stores typically take 15-25%. They generate Steam keys in most cases, which means those sales don't count toward your Steam revenue tiers. Valve allows unlimited Steam key generation for legitimate stores but reserves the right to cut you off if key sales dramatically outpace sales through Steam itself.
Is Epic's lower cut actually a better deal?
This is the question every indie developer debates at some point. On paper, keeping 88% instead of 70% is a massive difference. On a $14.99 game, that's $13.19 per sale on Epic versus $10.49 on Steam (before regional pricing and refunds). Per unit, it's not even close.
But per unit isn't how you should think about it. Total revenue is what matters, and total revenue is unit price times volume.
The audience size problem
Steam has roughly 130+ million monthly active users. Epic Games Store has a significantly smaller active buyer base for third-party titles. While Epic gives away free games that drive account creation, converting those free-game collectors into paying customers for indie games has been a persistent challenge.
Most indie developers who've released on both platforms report that Steam generates 5-20x more revenue than EGS for the same title. Some report ratios as high as 50:1. The lower cut doesn't compensate for that volume difference.
Discoverability and organic traffic
Steam's discovery systems -- the algorithm, discovery queues, tag-based recommendations, wishlists, and the curated front page -- generate meaningful organic traffic for indie games. It's not perfect, and plenty of games still struggle with visibility, but the infrastructure exists and works.
Epic's discovery tools are still maturing. Their store has improved significantly since launch, but it doesn't yet match Steam's depth of recommendation systems, community features, or the sheer volume of browsing traffic that leads to impulse purchases.
Wishlists and the Steam ecosystem
Steam wishlists are one of the most powerful marketing tools available to indie developers. Players wishlist your game months before launch, get notified on release day and during sales, and a meaningful percentage convert to buyers over time. Our data on wishlist conversion rates shows this pipeline in detail.
Epic has a wishlist system too, but the conversion data suggests it's less effective, partly because Epic's notification infrastructure and habitual buyer behavior haven't matured to the same level.
The practical verdict
For most indie developers, Steam exclusivity or Steam-first with later EGS release is still the higher-revenue strategy. The math only flips in Epic's favor if:
- •Epic offers you a minimum guarantee or exclusivity deal (less common for small indie titles now than in 2019-2021)
- •Your game has a built-in audience that will follow you to any platform
- •You're using Unreal Engine and the royalty waiver is significant for your budget
None of this means Epic is a bad platform. It's worth releasing on both. But if you're planning your revenue projections, weight Steam as your primary income source unless you have a specific reason not to.
How to calculate your actual take-home revenue
Here's a step-by-step framework you can use for your own game:
Step 1: Estimate your unit sales
Use the Boxleiter method (review count multiplied by 20-60 depending on genre) for comparable games, or estimate based on your wishlist count. Our indie game revenue data has benchmarks by genre and review tier.
Step 2: Calculate gross revenue
Multiply your estimated unit sales by your price point. But don't use your base USD price -- apply a regional pricing discount of 20-25% to get a realistic per-unit average.
Example: 5,000 units at $14.99 base price with 22% regional adjustment = 5,000 x $11.69 = $58,450 gross
Step 3: Subtract Steam's cut
Take 30% off (for revenue under $10M, which applies to nearly all indie games).
Example: $58,450 x 0.70 = $40,915
Step 4: Subtract refunds
Apply a 10-15% refund rate.
Example: $40,915 x 0.88 (12% refund rate) = $36,005
Step 5: Account for taxes
This varies dramatically by country and situation, but set aside 20-30% for taxes.
Example: $36,005 x 0.75 (25% effective tax rate) = $27,004
So on 5,000 units sold at $14.99, your actual take-home after everything is roughly $27,000. That's about 36% of the $74,950 you might have naively calculated from 5,000 x $14.99. The gap between expectation and reality is significant, and it's why so many indie developers are surprised by their first real revenue numbers.
The Revenue Calculator automates all of this and lets you adjust each variable to match your situation.
Is Steam's cut fair?
This is a question that generates a lot of heat and not much light. Here's my honest take.
30% is a lot. There's no way around that. When you're a solo developer who spent two years building something, handing over nearly a third of every sale stings.
But Steam provides distribution infrastructure, payment processing in dozens of currencies, bandwidth for downloads and updates, community features (forums, reviews, Workshop), the wishlist notification system, the discovery algorithm, seasonal sale events, and an audience of over a hundred million gamers. Building any of that yourself would cost far more than 30%.
The more relevant question isn't "is 30% fair" but "does Steam generate enough additional revenue through its audience and tools to justify the premium over a lower-cut platform?" For most indie games, the answer is yes -- but you should run the numbers for your specific situation rather than taking that on faith.
Frequently asked questions
Does Steam's 30% cut apply to DLC and in-game purchases too?
Yes. Steam's revenue share applies to all transactions including base game sales, DLC, in-game purchases, and soundtrack sales. The tiered rates (25% above $10M, 20% above $50M) also account for DLC and in-game purchase revenue alongside base game revenue for the same application.
Do Steam key sales through other stores count toward my revenue tiers?
No. Revenue from Steam keys sold through third-party stores like Humble or Fanatical does not count toward the $10M and $50M tier thresholds. Only direct sales through the Steam store count. This is another reason the lower tiers are effectively unreachable for indie developers -- key sales might make up a meaningful chunk of your total volume but they don't help you reach a better rate.
Can I negotiate a custom revenue share with Valve?
For the vast majority of developers, no. Valve's tiered system is standardized. Custom deals exist, but they're reserved for the biggest publishers and highest-profile exclusives. If you're reading this guide, the standard terms almost certainly apply to you.
How does Steam's cut compare to console storefronts?
PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo all take approximately 30% as well, making Steam's base rate industry-standard for major platforms. The key differences are that consoles also charge licensing fees and require dev kits, while Steam's barrier to entry is a one-time $100 app fee per title. For indie developers, Steam is significantly cheaper to publish on when you factor in total costs beyond the revenue share.
Ready to model your actual take-home revenue? Run your numbers through the Revenue Calculator with realistic assumptions for regional pricing, refunds, and Steam's cut. Then read our indie game revenue data for genre-specific benchmarks and our pricing strategy guide to make sure you're pricing for maximum net revenue, not just maximum sticker price.
Browse our genre-specific optimization guides for strategies tailored to your game type, and check the Steam Page Leaderboard to see how top games optimize their store pages.