IncrementalGames.org report · data as of Sep 30, 2026
The state of incremental games in 2026
Original data on idle and incremental games: how many have an ending, how long they take, how idle they really are, which are still updated, and what players spend the most hours on. Built from 28349 games across itch.io, galaxy.click, Steam and mobile, 1575 of them tagged in detail.
Where incremental games live
Games per platform; many are on more than one. n = 28349.
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| Item | games |
|---|---|
| Browser | 13857 |
| Steam | 8021 |
| Mobile | 2705 |
How idle are they, really?
Share of games by idle rating, where 0 is fully active and 100 plays itself. n = 492.
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| Item | of games |
|---|---|
| Active (0–35) | 16% |
| Balanced (36–59) | 26% |
| Leans idle (60–79) | 44% |
| Mostly idle (80–100) | 14% |
How long endings take
Games with an ending, by the upper estimate of time to finish. n = 16.
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| Item | games |
|---|---|
| An evening (≤5h) | 2 |
| A weekend (6–15h) | 4 |
| A few weeks (16–60h) | 5 |
| Months (60h+) | 5 |
Is anyone still updating them?
Update status across every game where we could tell. n = 21834.
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| Item | of games |
|---|---|
| Updated in the last year | 42% |
| Finished by design | <1% |
| No update in over a year | 44% |
| Not released yet | 14% |
Most-played on galaxy.click
Total play hours logged on galaxy.click.
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| Item | hours |
|---|---|
| Fundamental | 1.30e6 |
| The Silly Caverns | 1.08e6 |
| Celestial Incremental | 727,768 |
| Rejected Draft | 561,748 |
| Points Progression | 550,551 |
| DodecaDragons | 480,555 |
| Birb | 431,556 |
| Check Back | 430,148 |
| Shark Incremental | 317,878 |
| Incremental Mass Rewritten | 302,181 |
Best-reviewed on Steam
Share of positive Steam reviews, games with 500+ reviews.
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| Item | positive |
|---|---|
| Placid Plastic Duck Simulator | 98% |
| Magic Archery | 98% |
| Berry Bury Berry | 98% |
| Digseum | 98% |
| Shelldiver | 98% |
| Silly Linguine Cat Simulator Deluxe Online | 98% |
| Garden Galaxy | 98% |
| Rusty's Retirement | 97% |
| Nodebuster | 97% |
| Tower Wizard | 97% |
The most common themes
Tags across 1575 tagged games.
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| Item | games |
|---|---|
| Idle | 465 |
| Clicker | 307 |
| Tycoon | 290 |
| Prestige | 275 |
| RPG | 273 |
| Collection | 210 |
| Humor | 205 |
| Combat | 192 |
| Incremental | 138 |
| Short | 132 |
Method
Hand-tagged facts (ending, hours, idle rating, offline progress) come from IncrementalGames.org editors, or from each developer's own description for newer indie games. Steam numbers come from the Steam store, play hours and ratings from galaxy.click, and update dates from GitHub and itch.io. Counts use only games where the fact is known, and each chart states its sample size. More on how we rate games. The raw data is public at /api/games.json.
Cite this report
Incremental Games, "The state of incremental games in 2026", Sep 30, 2026. https://incrementalgames.org/reports/state-of-incremental-games-2026