Games · 2026-11-02

itch.io sees double the new games, and the platform hints at AI

The indie game platform itch.io noticed that the number of new game pages has nearly doubled in two months, and generative AI is considered the likely cause.

✨ What happened

itch.io, the platform where independent game developers publish their projects, noticed a sharp rise in new game pages. This is not matched by a similar rise in downloads or purchases. According to a chart published by the platform, the number of new pages per day was about 3,000 in August and passed 6,000 by October.

PC Gamer reported this, citing a post from itch.io on Bluesky.

📌 Why AI is blamed

The spike coincided with the release of new versions of large language models, including Claude Opus from Anthropic. These models made writing code and reverse engineering much easier, so some people began mass-publishing similar, rushed games.

When users asked about the causes, the official itch.io account only hinted at an answer, adding a crying emoji and a robot emoji. When asked directly whether this was AI slop (low-quality content made by machines for quantity), the platform replied with an emoji of a person with bags under their eyes.

🔹 How many games are labeled as AI-made

Out of more than 1.77 million games on itch.io, over 131,000, about 7.5%, carry the official "AI Generated" label. Authors state themselves that they used generative AI.

Steam has a similar situation. At the October Steam Next Fest, more than a third of indie games were made with generative AI tools. Compared with the June festival, the share of such games nearly doubled, and players were outraged.

🔸 Platform rules

According to itch.io's rules, mass creation of pages using automated systems counts as spam. The platform requires authors to honestly disclose the use of generative AI. If the rules are broken, itch.io may remove such projects from search and recommendations or block them entirely.

Sources: 🔗 DOU/dev.ua