Valve warns of slower Steam approvals, possibly due to AI game surge

Valve has announced significant delays in Steam’s game approval process, with mandatory QA review times extending from a few days to over two weeks. The platform has experienced a dramatic surge in submissions, with approximately 24,299 games released on Steam in 2026 alone—a sharp increase from just 4,500 games in 2016. Valve attributes the backlog to a “significant increase” in submissions, particularly from AI-generated games that fail basic technical checks and require multiple rounds of re-review.

To address the bottleneck and reduce the cycle of back-and-forth reviews, Valve has tightened its pre-release review checklist with new developer requirements. Games must now demonstrate that they can run on Steam for at least five minutes, as Valve discovered many developer builds had never launched through the platform. Developers must also explicitly confirm that all required system components—such as DirectX versions and other dependencies—are properly listed. Additionally, developers are required to verify that advertised features like local co-op actually function as described before submission.

These changes are part of Valve’s broader effort to scale its review process to handle increased demand. The approval backlog has caused some games to miss their intended release dates. Valve provided comprehensive guidance to help developers pass the review process on their first submission, aiming to reduce the volume of re-reviews that currently clog the queue and slow approvals for all developers.

Valve warns of slower Steam approvals, possibly due to AI game surge

Sources