The cooperative gaming landscape on Steam has reached unprecedented heights in 2025, with shared gameplay experiences generating record-breaking revenues and dominating the platform's sales charts. Recent market analysis demonstrates that Steam users increasingly prefer gaming experiences they can enjoy with friends, marking a significant shift in player preferences.

Steam's inherent advantages as a gaming platform have significantly contributed to this co-op gaming boom. The absence of online play fees and innovative features like Remote Play Together - which enables multiple players to enjoy a game with just one purchased copy - have made Steam particularly appealing for social gaming. The platform's vast library of indie titles appears to be a major factor in these remarkable statistics.

Financial reports reveal staggering numbers: Steam generated an estimated $4.1 billion in revenue from cooperative games alone during the first half of 2025, representing an 11% increase from the same period in 2024. The platform's top five best-selling games were exclusively co-op titles, with REPO leading at 16.4 million copies sold. Other notable performers included Schedule 1 (9 million), Peak (7 million), Monster Hunter Wilds (6.3 million), and Elden Ring Nightreign (2.8 million).

When examining revenue rather than units sold, Monster Hunter Wilds emerged as the top earner with $380.8 million, followed by Schedule 1 ($137 million), REPO ($128.2 million), Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 ($109.1 million), and Split Fiction ($104.5 million). This complete dominance of co-op titles across both sales metrics underscores their overwhelming popularity.

The evolution of cooperative gaming on Steam becomes even more remarkable when viewed historically. In the first half of 2018, co-op games accounted for just $1.25 billion in revenue. While growth remained steady through early 2020 ($1.5 billion), the latter half of 2020 saw a dramatic surge past $2 billion, climbing to $2.5 billion by mid-2021. Industry analysts attribute these jumps to landmark co-op releases like Phasmophobia, Valheim, It Takes Two, and Baldur's Gate 3.

Contrary to expectations, AAA titles haven't driven this co-op revolution. Instead, independent developers and mid-tier (AA) studios have led the charge, offering more accessible price points that lower the barrier for group gaming experiences. This affordability factor, combined with Steam users' well-documented tendency to accumulate large game libraries, has created ideal conditions for co-op gaming's explosive growth.

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