Glossary
What is early access?
Early access is a way of selling a game before it's finished. Players buy it, play the unfinished version and give feedback while development goes on.
Published Updated
How it works
On Steam, an Early Access game carries a notice that it is unfinished and may change, or may never be finished. The developer sets the price, and buyers keep the game when it reaches its full release. Many games launch at their biggest player count and then lose players while they wait for updates.
In the games we track
- '83: launched in Early Access on Steam on 23 April 2026, seven years after it was announced.
- Fellowship: peaked at 43,205 players at its October 2025 Early Access launch. After a Halloween reset in October 2026 its 30-day peak was 3,359.
- Path of Exile 2: leaves Early Access on 11 December 2026.
Fellowship's first year in player counts shows the curve month by month.
Games and guides
Sources
- Steam – Early Access, published by store.steampowered.com
- Wikipedia – Early access, published by en.wikipedia.org
- Wikidata – Early access (Q17042291), published by wikidata.org
More terms
- Action RPG
- Battle pass
- Battle royale
- Co-op
- Collectible card game
- Concurrent players
- Cosmetic item
- DLC
- Drop rate
- ESRB rating
- Expansion
- Expected value
- First-person shooter
- Free-to-play
- Gacha game
- Hero shooter
- In-game purchases
- Loot box
- Looter shooter
- MMORPG
- MOBA
- Open world
- PEGI rating
- Pity
- Premium currency
- Real-time strategy
- Remaster
- Role-playing game
- Season
- Season pass
- Subscription
- Survival horror
- Tactical shooter
- USK rating