Most Developers Are Unhappy With Steam’s 30% Revenue Cut

In a survey of over 3,000 game industry professionals (mostly from North America and Europe), only 3% said that it's fair for stores such as Steam and GOG to take 30% of their revenue. Another 3% said that more than 30% is justified (strange answer!), but most think the cut should be lowered. 43% said that a 10% or 15% cut is justified.

Only 6% of developers say game stores are justified in taking a cut of 30% or higher.

The 30/70 revenue split, which once seemed like an immutable industry standard, has been heavily scrutinized in recent years in part because Epic Games came out swinging in late 2018 when it launched the Epic Games Store. Epic declared that a 30% cut is unreasonable, and set its fee at 12%, directly challenging Steam, GOG, and the Apple and Google app stores.