October 2026 on Steam: 665 games, measured
Every game we put in a release calendar last month, counted by follower size and by the day it lands.
665 games had a Steam page, a trailer and a fixed release day in October 2026. They are the games in our eleven October release calendars. We counted the followers on all of them.
Where the numbers come from
Steam store pages, read on 10 September 2026. Follower counts polled 9 to 12 September.
Two exclusions. Games Steam dates to "October 2026" with no day are out, because a calendar cannot place them: that was 36% of the month. Games with no trailer are out too.
Episodes are built from Steam's own tag ranking. The tone ones are generous: a game tagged Horror well down its list still lands in the horror episode.
Followers are not wishlists. Developers who publish both report 7 to 20 wishlists per follower. At the low end, 700 followers is roughly 7,000 wishlists, the number usually quoted as the floor for a Popular Upcoming slot at launch. Valve has never confirmed it. Treat 700 as a rough visibility line.
What the month looked like
88 of the 665 games were at 700 followers or more. That is 13.2%.
The median game had 23 followers. Two thirds of the month sat under 100. Between them the 665 hold 938,047 followers, and the ten biggest games have 53% of that. The largest, Phantom Blade Zero on 28 October, has 106,767 on its own, more than the bottom 600 combined.
Per episode
Every game gets one "what do you do in it" episode plus any tone or mode episode it also fits, so the rows add up to more than 665. The three middle columns are mean followers in each episode's strongest fifth, its middle sixty per cent, and its weakest fifth.
| Episode | Games | Top 20% | Mid 60% | Bottom 20% | 700+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shooters | 75 | 8,585 | 41 | 2 | 10 |
| Action and fighting games | 39 | 23,786 | 69 | 3 | 7 |
| RPGs, adventures and visual novels | 142 | 8,741 | 82 | 3 | 26 |
| Strategy, card and puzzle games | 115 | 1,735 | 28 | 2 | 11 |
| Builders, tycoons and farming sims | 110 | 4,608 | 91 | 3 | 15 |
| Platformers, racing and sports games | 70 | 8,275 | 33 | 2 | 9 |
| Idle and incremental games | 40 | 264 | 36 | 4 | 0 |
| Horror games | 90 | 5,107 | 135 | 4 | 16 |
| Cozy games | 36 | 1,046 | 86 | 3 | 4 |
| Roguelikes and soulslikes | 87 | 3,661 | 32 | 4 | 7 |
| Co-op and party games | 116 | 14,848 | 142 | 3 | 23 |
| All 665 games | 665 | 6,882 | 56 | 3 | 88 |
Every episode's bottom fifth averages single digits: two to four followers, in all eleven.
The middle sixty per cent runs from 28 to 142. So the typical October release in any genre had a double-digit following, and everything else sits in the top fifth. That fifth is a handful of games. Action and fighting averages 23,786 across eight of them, and two of those eight are 80% of it.
Idle and incremental has no top at all. Its strongest fifth averages 264, and none of its 40 games reached 700.
Cozy is the other odd one. A middle of 86, better than shooters or strategy, but a top fifth of 1,046 and four games over 700. Plenty of small followings, no big ones.
Release dates
323 of the 665 games ship between the 26th and the 31st. Friday the 30th takes 83 of them, and one of those 83 is above 700 followers.
Those six days hold 48.6% of the month's releases and 6.5% of its followed games. The other 25 days run at 19.6%. The games that already had an audience were not the ones fighting over Halloween.
One row per episode, one column per day. Shading runs against each row's own busiest day, so a 36-game episode is readable next to a 142-game one. Weekends are dimmed. The bottom row counts each game once.
| Episode | Th1 | Fr2 | Sa3 | Su4 | Mo5 | Tu6 | We7 | Th8 | Fr9 | Sa10 | Su11 | Mo12 | Tu13 | We14 | Th15 | Fr16 | Sa17 | Su18 | Mo19 | Tu20 | We21 | Th22 | Fr23 | Sa24 | Su25 | Mo26 | Tu27 | We28 | Th29 | Fr30 | Sa31 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shooters | 9 | 3 | · | · | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | · | · | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | · | · | 2 | · | 1 | 1 | · | · | · | 3 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 11 | 1 |
| Action | 5 | · | · | · | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | · | 6 | 1 | · | 1 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 2 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 2 | · |
| RPG | 8 | 2 | · | · | 4 | · | 2 | 5 | 3 | · | 1 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 6 | · | · | 5 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 2 |
| Strategy | 11 | 6 | · | · | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | · | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | · | · | 2 | · | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | · | · | 9 | 17 | 7 | 12 | 14 | · |
| Builders | 9 | 6 | · | · | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | · | · | 7 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | · | · | 3 | 4 | · | 2 | 3 | 1 | · | 2 | 9 | 15 | 4 | 14 | 1 |
| Platform | 2 | 1 | · | · | · | 4 | 2 | · | 5 | · | · | 1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | · | · | · | · | 2 | 2 | · | · | · | 1 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 11 | · |
| Idle | 1 | 2 | · | · | · | · | · | 4 | · | · | · | 1 | 1 | · | · | 2 | · | · | 1 | 1 | · | · | · | · | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 11 | · |
| Horror | 1 | · | · | 1 | 1 | · | · | 6 | 2 | · | · | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | · | · | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | · | · | 12 | 14 | 9 | 10 | 7 | · |
| Cozy | 3 | 4 | · | · | · | · | 1 | 1 | 2 | · | · | 2 | · | 2 | · | 1 | · | · | · | · | · | 1 | 3 | 1 | · | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Roguelike | 7 | 1 | · | · | 2 | · | 2 | 1 | · | · | · | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | · | · | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | · | · | · | 5 | 14 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 1 |
| Co-op | 9 | 4 | · | · | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | · | · | 6 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 | · | 1 | · | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | · | 1 | 3 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 1 |
| All games | 48 | 21 | · | 1 | 13 | 8 | 11 | 26 | 22 | 1 | 3 | 28 | 23 | 26 | 29 | 16 | · | 2 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 41 | 72 | 65 | 58 | 83 | 4 |
Every episode piles into the same week: 41% of builders and sims, 47% of shooters, 58% of horror, 65% of idle and incremental. Sixteen games out of 665 release on a weekend. Thursday takes 174 on its own, more than any other day.
We will run the same count for November.
The October 2026 episodes
Every game counted above, in release order, with its trailer and its date. Eleven episodes, one per row of the table.