Video Games' Hottest New Platform is an Old One

Web-based video games are experiencing an unexpected revival as the broader $189 billion industry stagnates. Sales for browser-based titles like GeoGuessr and chess were expected to triple from 2021 to 2028, reaching $3.09 billion, according to Google and Kantar. Playgama hosted more than 15,000 new web games in the first half of 2025, exceeding the combined total from 2021 through 2023.

Websites provide fast and easy access without console boot-ups or app downloads. Game creators sidestep the 30% revenue cuts imposed by Steam and Apple. Poki has doubled its employee count to 70 since 2020 and now serves 100 million monthly active users. A top-ten developer on the platform earns about $1 million in yearly revenue, up from $50,000 in 2020. Consoles cost more than $450, and smartphone gamers are downloading fewer apps. Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins predicted web games will be "one of the next waves."

Great, now they can port Steam to it

[Krishnoid]

I mean they've already got a Linux kernel [phoronix.com] running in the browser, the rest should be easy to port over.

Re:

[codebase7]

Considering that Steam is just steampowered.com running in a custom CEF (Chromium Embedded Framework) app, they already did a long time ago. The steam_api.dll is just a hook into that CEF app via a shared memory buffer, pipe, and Windows synchronization primitives that gets shipped with the games. (Well technically it calls into steamclient.dll for that, but you get the point.)

FYI: That's also the reason that Valve doesn't support Steam under Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1, and soon 10, anymore. Chromium stoppe

Browser games

[RitchCraft]

Over the past year I've found myself playing browser based games as well, something I didn't even consider before. As pointed out the convenience makes them attractive. I recently played an FPS in my browser that was quite fun and surprisingly detailed.

Re:

[Morromist]

I know nothing about this world. What websites have the best browser games?

Last time I played browser games it was newgrounds.com a long long time go.

Re:Browser games

[RitchCraft]

I just did a google search. Crazy games comes up first. I've played a few of these in the past. https://www.crazygames.com/ [crazygames.com]

Re:

[Morromist]

Damn. That's one hell of a website. Can't belive they can run the whole thing on ad money. I guess either its much cheaper to run a website like this than I think or the ad companies pay a lot more than I can concieve of.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

These days with WebAssembly anything can be made to run in a browser. There are C to WebAssembly compilers out there that do most of the hard work - it's how DOSBox runs in a browser (archive.org has a collection of DOS games playable in a browser - it's just DOSBox in the end) as many other runtimes like ScummVM and such.

Many games are simply being retarged for WebAssembly - and many game engines have already been ported making the retarget fairly low effort.

Re:

[antdude]

I used to play games in my web browsers like those in Java, Flash, Shockwave, DHTML, etc. Which FPS game was it?

Re:

[RitchCraft]

I just looked on crazygames.com. It keeps of list of games you played. It's called Hazmob FPS: Online Shooter

Quick, convenient

[TJHook3r]

There's a lot to be said about games that don't turn the computer fan into a jet engine!

Weren't game sites a thing back in

[future assassin]

2005? With flash based games.

Re:

[codebase7]

You don't understand, this is about new web powered games. So now they can be AI first, cloud native, experiences. All without the hassle and IP risk of allowing the end user to get their thieving mitts on the code and content! Think of the subscription profits! /s

(Yes, I realize that one can save off a warc of the site, but if you think the industry isn't dying to turn gaming into fancy remote control + a video feed, you're nuts.)

People paying $2.99 for a flash game

[mjwx]

People paying $2.99 for a flash game on their phone have finally figured out that you can play them for free on the interwebs. News at 11.