I’d be interested where you’re getting your data. SteamDB shows an accelerating trend of game releases over time, though comparing January 2026 to January 2025 directly shows a marginal gain [0].
This chart from a16z (scroll down to “App Store, Engage”) plots monthly iOS App Store releases each month and shows significant growth [1].
> After basically zero growth for the past three years, new app releases surged 60% yoy in December (and 24% on a trailing twelve month basis).
It’s completely anecdotal evidence but my own personal experience shows various sub-Reddit’s just flooded with AI assisted projects now, so much so that various pages have started to implement bans or limits of AI related posts (r/selfhosted just did this).
As far as _amazing software_ goes, that’s all a bit subjective. But there is definitely an increase happening.
I got the numbers swapped. Turns out there was an increase of about 40 games between last January and this. Which is exactly what you wouldn’t expect if the 5-10x claims are true.
Also the accelerating trend dates back to 2018 if you remove the early COVID dip. Which is exactly my point. You can look at the graph and there is no noticeable impact correlated to any major AI advancements.
The iOS data is interesting. But it’s an outlier because the Play Store and Steam show nothing similar. And the iOS App Store is weird because they’ve had numerous periods of negative growth follow by huge positive growth over the years. My guess is that it probably has more to do with all of the VC money flowing into AI startups and all the small teams following the hype building wrappers and post training existing models. If you look at a random sample of the iOS new apps that looks likely.
Seriously go to the App Store,
search AI and scroll until you get bored. There are literally thousands of AI API wrappers.
January numbers are out and there were fewer games launched this January than last.