When I was a child, the only way for me to get a video game I wanted was by the grace of parents or from a friend who was done playing it. There was a level of excitement for each new game and it felt so special. I loved to celebrate this by creating a small “party” where I would save money from school lunch to buy sodas, snacks and various sweets that I would devour while playing the game.
Adulthood isn’t the best in many ways, but it has its perks — one of them being having a job where you can earn money. And while you still have to pay the bills, if you’re lucky enough, you’ll have some disposable income in the end, and if you’re like me, you might buy yourself some video games.
You’d think that would make you happy, right? Well, sort of, but it’s not without its issues either.
The Reality Of Gaming Industry
According to data from SteamDB, Steam had 21,459 games released in 2025, which averages at about 58 games each day. Around 77% (16599) of those games are classified as “Limited Games”, which doesn’t mean that those games were removed, unfinished, or necessarily low quality but rather that they didn’t meet Valve’s criteria aka certain engagement and sales thresholds. Most of the time those are either small indie projects, hobbyist releases, niche games with tiny audiences, or simply experimental projects that never got much visibility.
If we were to completely ignore those games, we are still left with 4,860 games that reached Steam’s engagement threshold in 2025. And if my math is right (and it is) that’s 13 new games getting released each day. It’s a wild number if you think about it. As for 2026, it’s projected to pass last year’s numbers by a couple thousand.
That’s just games that you can find on Steam, without even bothering with other services, but you get the picture. It’s physically impossible to play all those games, and no one should even try.
A Problem No One Saw Coming
On top of having all those games being released, we also have frequent sales where you can buy games for a fraction of their original price. A whole franchise, 40 DLC’s, including promo weapons, armors, packs, remastered and optimized for 4K Ultra HD only for 4$. Does it sound like something I made up? Because it’s a real thing. This is just one example of it. If a game is getting a sequel, you better believe that the previous part is will be discounted.
It sounds like I’m saying this is a bad thing, which it obviously isn’t but it creates an issue that wasn’t there before. What usually happens is that I’ll start a game, get obsessed with it and somewhere in the middle of it I’ll see a sale of a game that catches my eye. I’ll buy it in order to play it once I’m done with the current one, which I sometimes do but more often than not I’ll get more than one game and then I either forget to play the other one or something more interesting gets released.
You can see where I’m going with this. After a long period of time, the inevitable happens. The roster gets so filled with the games that it gets overwhelming just thinking about it. I’ll be the first to admit that I have this problem. I have so many games that I own but have never played. And to make things worse, that list just keeps expanding. I know, right? First world problems.
How to Deal With Too Many Games
All of this got me thinking, there must be a better/healthier way to deal with this. I’ve managed to come up with a few solutions that might be able to help.
First and more extreme one would be to simply create a new account where you would only get one game, play it until you get it out of your system and then (and only then) buy a new one. It would mean that all the games you previously bought would go to waste but sometimes it’s for the best. You’ll get rid of the guilt about not playing them and you’ll enjoy the ones you actually do play more.
The less extreme option would be to go on a game-buying ban (GTA VI) obviously not included) until you’re done playing a good chunk of your list. Pick one game each weekend to play, and if you don’t like it, move on to the next. But you have to promise to give it at least a good couple of hours before making your decision. And I’ll promise to do the same.
In order to make that happen, we’ll need to stop browsing the Steam Store altogether, at least for the time being. And just so this doesn’t feel like a punishment, we all get to buy one new game for every 5 we clear from our to-be-played list.
Conclusion
The harsh reality of modern gaming is that we have easy access to almost everything and there is an abundance of games available. It’s way more than we need in our lifetimes but we still keep getting more. Our game libraries keep increasing but the available time for them stays the same. I’ve come up with a solution for it but it’s still a work in progress. I’ll try my best to keep my side of the deal, and I hope you can do the same.
I’m really interested to hear how many games you have in your roster that you have never played? Make sure to leave your answer down in the comments!
